supposed to be attained? Specifically, with a 747 or other bigger jets, when the FMC calculates a flap and speed setting on final, at what point do pilots try to get to this, relative to distance from the runway?Thanks!Noel

Noel:There is a very decent tutorial for PMDG's 747-400 available on their website. Also, if you are a member of Phoenix Simulation's website, you can download four excellent tutorials for their FS 2000 747-400 "classic."These tutorials -there are others, like the tutorials for Level D's 767, etc.- will give you all the answers you need. Also, study Metzinger's tutorial for PMDG's 737 jets. ricardo

Thx Ricardo. Hopefully someone can answer just this one question but if not I will research it myself.Cheers

Hi,Here are a few profiles for the 737-300/500 which should give you a clue, but like Ricardo says the manuals provided with the aircraft also give this info (and more).http://www.scandinavian-va.net/upload/737Profiles.pdf

NoelIf it's of interest, here's my procedure for an ILS approach and manual landing in the PMDG 737. The example figures in brackets are based on average landing weight and are usually OK for most situations. The + 10kts added to the value on the speed tape gives you a useful safety margin if steep turns are involved. You should first set your flap, then slow to the required speed.Be at flaps up manoeuvring speed (MS) at 20 miles from touchdown. Then slow to 190kts and set flaps 1.When ATC vectors you towards the localiser set flaps 5 and slow to flaps 5 MS + 10kts (eg 180kts)When localiser is captured set flaps 10 and slow to flaps 10 MS + 10kts (eg 170kts)When glideslope is active put your gear down, set flaps 15 and slow to flaps 15 MS + 10kts (eg 150kts) When glideslope is captured set flaps 30 and slow to final landing speed (VREF)as per the FMC + 5kts. That should get you home. Please note that it's just one way of doing things, based on reading various tutorials (and posts from real 737 pilots). Give it a go.. :)RegardsIan

After re-reading several AOMs, I don't see a rule-of-thumb for each and every aspecto of an approach.Almost all manuals express very vaguely about the usage of flaps and speeds and when to extend them and slow down.I guess it depends on the kind of approach flown and the actual situation you're in, and a lot of the approach speed and flaps handling is based on experience and intuition (like the landing itself is in fact no "precision" thing but a gokart race flown by the seat of your pants, stomach feeling and a good look outside). That's where theory ends and good practise is needed.Basically, the goal to fly economically and fuel saving until the very end is to keep a clean configuration as long as possible. That means to deploy flaps as late as possible and therefore approach relatively fast.The trick is to know the effects of flap deployment. You need to know the amount speed loss they cause, and you need to know how fast this speed bleeds off. Knowing the planned landing flaps setting and flight path and allowing a margin where landing configuration must be reached latest (usually approx. 500-1000 ft AGL), you can then calculate the approximate point where flap deploymant needs to be started. Then, you go down slowing down constantly while deploying one flaps setting after another until landing flaps setting. This way, the plane flies most economically.Because I think this is almost impossible to do because of wind and other factors (which show mainly during fully manual approaches where you don't even have a DME) etc., there are always tradeoffs in flying economically. Either you're too fast and/or high and need to do something against this such as early gear down, or you're too low and/or slow and need to spool the engines up and thus burning a lot more fuel on approach.It's all about a balance between economics and safety of the configuration used. If you want to be safe, your're at Vref+10 at 10NM with landing flaps extended, if you want to be economic you're still at 190 at the OM with medium flaps and gear up...It's all about practise and the aircraft type used.Andreas

I'm not sure if this is what you are after, but it's taken from the British Airways Airbus Study Guide for the A320 family:

Many thanks to all of you. It looks like intuitively I had it similar to the tabled info above, but with gear down maybe 10m out. Ian, thank you for the detailed report. I will try some approaches following this exactly, and take it from "shoot from the hip mode" to something a little more orderly!Cheers,Noel