Quik question on DES page

[Louis8 6]

I'm running Active sky next and to make it more real on the DES  page it says "forecast "  so let's say I'm landing at Calgary --CYYC - In Active Sky it will show the weather at different altitudes , i'm sticking in the winds at Level 240 -18000 and sometimes- 9000 or maybe- 3000 feet . Are you guys basically using this and how is it simulated? just curious . Guys ask me on team speak "is this the only jet you have" ? and i reply "yes cause i fly this thing like an 'ol lady why the heck would i buy anything else "? my kid is a captain on one of these and if he's walk in and see me fly this thing he's shut my computer off and tell me to get an other hobby . Can't for the life of my make a 1/2 desent Rnav approach,  tried using Level change to go into Thunder bay  CYQT and was 8 thousand feet over the runway, ha a disgrace to the flight sim community .Hope i see a couple of you in Vegas come June at the sim conference -  

[downscc 1,327]

Quick question turned out to be a number of issues haah... okay, as far as real world descent forecast the answer is that most use the data link to fill in the blanks much as the 747 and777 products do.  My method is to start doing a pre-descent check about 80-100 nm before TOD.  This check allows me to look at destination weather (AS uses F11 to bring up weather menu within the sim) and to verify I've got the correct arrival and runway selected. This is a good time to pull the winds aloft report up and use that to fill in the descent forecast screen.  I add the baro and temp deviation and winds at FL340 Fl240 and 12000 (unless my cruise is below FL350).  This helps the VNAV path prediction but if you have much of a tail wind you are going to use speedbrakes.

Don't let yourself get too high on the vertical path, the indication that I watch for (among many) is the pitch mode on the FMA going from VNAV PTH to VNAV SPD, which means it can no longer stay on the path without exceeding safe speeds.  In the NGX this will happen often due to a bug that still exists to some extent in the 777 and has finally been taken care of in the 747.  What happens is the aircraft is descending on plan and when crossing a waypoint suddenly the VNAV path is hundreds or thousands of feet lower and your are instantly too high and pitch goes to VNAV SPD.  In most cases you will remain forever too high unless you intervene with speedbrakes.  Also, make sure you have the throttles closed.  I've found that the B736 (with the 22K engines) for some reason will retard to idle but not maintain idles as it descends into thicker air, where the N1 should be decreasing instead it remains at 40% and you start getting thrust that makes controlling speed in descent very difficult.

All you need is experience Louis... keep on working on it and learn to identify when things are not going as intended.  Those automation boxes still require an active pilot on board.

[Nick Dobda 24]

The back of Tutorial 2 has a process for filling in the descent page during the preflight using Active Sky. The downside is conditions can change in flight. But what are the odds of that (especially in my case my flights are between 45 and 70 minutes long).

Essentially the tutorial method uses AS and the waypoints in your route that fall along the descent path to estimate the descent weather as accurately as you can short of hiring Al Roker to plan your flight.

It can involve some interpolation - so some (including myself) prefer to use Dan's method he described above for the reason that even if you used ASN and tutorial 2's method every time its still an estimate.

Get in the habit of noticing the trend of your descent and how to make corrections to the plane on the way down, because I think its much more common to stray from the FMC's perfect descent then it is to keep your hands off and bring it in right on the line perfectly. Throw ATC in the mix and you can throw out the descent forecast a lot of times too.

[Freo 83]

8 hours ago, Louis8 said:

my kid is a captain on one of these and if he's walk in and see me fly this thing he's shut my computer off and tell me to get an other hobby . 

What a strange reaction from your son. I would have thought that he would be rather pleased that you had a hobby, which you obviously enjoy, and would have given you some tips and techniques, he uses in real life to show you how to do things properly.

Just my thoughts. 

[Louis8 6]

He's real funny that way Neil, But me being a heavy duty mechanic when his '65 Mustang needs work guess who has to go fix it !!!! but that's Ok what ever --- i have friends who are jet jockeys on this bird so i just ask them, one of them is Jack Codwell who was a beta tester on this bird and is a friend of mine .Dan and Nick, i'm going through your tips 

[MarkJHarris 128]

I reckon your kid needs a boot up the backside if he tries this. Keep up the good work and enjoy your chosen hobby! I'd be very impressed if my Dad was to take up Flight Simming for fun. And I'd help out as much as he wanted.

Our outfit don't have ACARS so we use the winds from our OFP supplied hours before. I use 240, 180, 10,000, others use 240, 10,000, 5000ft for the winds. I tend to also use the ant/ice boxes but it doesn't really matter. Where I tend to put more effort in is to descend a little early, maybe 5 nm before TOD. The aircraft will start a 1,000fpm descent and retard partially the throttles. When it comes to the VNAV path it will be easier to transition onto it then. Speed brakes for tailwinds is hokey IMHO. If the winds are in correctly ,the path will cater for this.I can fly VNAV descents to waypoints without using speed brakes at all. This is on brand new slippery SFP -800s.

The 737 calculates VNAV path from CF fix on the approach back up to TOD. It allows for slowing down to the F5/F10 speed at the glideslope capture too. Shortcuts and rerouting may indeed require speed brakes but I can do without most arrivals.

If you use the ECON speeds for descent, you have the ability to increase speed to help descend. A higher speed, using intervene, causes a steeper angle and allows you to correct for mistakes. Finally, speed brakes are pretty ineffective, unless you are going fast. The clue is in the name. At 220kts clean, they just make noise and little else.