Forgot to turn A/T on

[Gregg_Seipp 573]

Hi all,

I am on a flight from TNCC to KMIA.  The departure called for a turn from runway heading 113 to 344 right after departure with a hold down of 5000'.  I selected VNAV with no lateral mode, spooled up and pressed TOGA.  After passing 1000' I pressed heading select for the turn, the airplane started to turn, brought up the flaps and soon thereafter things went weird.  Something I'm doing wrong because I've seen it before.  Around 4000' the airplane started overspeeding (300+ knots) and blew through 5000' up into the 6000s.  I checked that the hold down was in the MCP. I did click Speed Intervene to 250KIAS which didn't seem to help...speed came down some but held at ~300.  I checked and had FMC SPD in the window.  What am I missing on these heading departures? 

Gregg

EDIT:  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr  #&#^^*(@@)!!.  Toss the tomatoes and eggs....I forgot to turn the A/T on.  FACE........PALM. 

[Nighthwk 566]

It happens to the best of us, I had the same issue where I would be at TOGA in the climb for no apparent reason with a climb rate of 5k+ a minute and later realized I never programmed a climb thrust reduction. It happens, glad you solved it though.

[mtrainer 136]

Well gents.....in learning the 737 I'm afraid that at some point I think I've made every mistake in the book, but it is the mistakes that make us better.   And, the best of the best of us are the ones who read the manual, look stuff up, and re-do the tutorials as often as required to maintain proficiency. 

Mark Trainer

(accomplished but still learning)

[Gregg_Seipp 573]

5 hours ago, mtrainer said:

Well gents.....in learning the 737 I'm afraid that at some point I think I've made every mistake in the book, but it is the mistakes that make us better.

My thought to myself exactly.  I have a pretty good flow but when something outside the norm is bugging me I tend to make these mistakes.  In this case, I had a turn right after departure so I couldn't select LNAV and was mentally trying to work out what AP mode to select.  I decided on HDG SELECT but when I pressed TOGA it shut itself off so, rolling down the runway, I'm still thinking about that instead of noticing A/T was off.  What lateral MCP mode do folks use when you have a turn soon after departure?