Have been virtual flying since 2007 off and on. The reason for the off and on is because I have never been able to land consistently.

Everything is fine until I disengage the AP and have to manually fly the last few thousand feet.

Can someone give me some advice to better prepare myself for landing?  I mostly fly the PMDG 737 NGX and Feelthere ERJ 145.

FS2Crew for the NGX will help a ton -- https://www.fs2crew.com/cart/categories/Special-PMDG-737-NGX-Reboot-Area/

But really, nothing replaces knowing the airplane and practice practice practice. 

 

16 minutes ago, Midmoflying84 said:

Have been virtual flying since 2007 off and on. The reason for the off and on is because I have never been able to land consistently.

Can you land e.g. a default GA prop airplane successfully and consistently every time?

If no, I suggest  to to fly a lot of traffic patterns (without using the AP) with simple GA planes first. 

If yes, do the above with the 737 and the ERJ for the same reason.

Edited November 16, 20187 yr by FDEdev

What helps me a lot is opening the PFD in a separate 2D window and really focus on the flight director and the vertical and horizontal deviation queues until I reach the final 200 ft, From there it's mainly visual. In the past, I moved my eyes up and down between the outside view and the PFD and I kept chasing the flight director, which led to overcorrecting. 

Also, have a look at FSIPanel if you want to practice your landings. Really helpful.

 

Jack Schaper

You should basically fly heading and vertical speed during an ILS approach and you should use the FD only for very fine corrections.

The aim should be that you are able to fly an ILS approach without FD. 

IRL and in the sim it's immediately obvious if a pilot simply chases the needles/FD without reference to the basic flight instruments due to the inevitable oscillations (usually called windshield wiper approach). 

Edited November 16, 20187 yr by FDEdev

Its mostly about speed management.  Begin by learning to manage speed at various configurations while flying level. And that preferably without autopiloe.   ex. one notch of flaps, gear up, 3,000 AGL, 180 knots.  Stay level for several minutes. Practive. Then with same configuration slow to 170 and maintain.  Note your power and pitch settings. Then slow another 10 knots and maintain level flight and speed. 

Then lower gear and maintain your speed, again until the changes in configuration settle down and you have managed the same level altitude and speed for a couple of minutes.  Vary your speed up or down by 10 knots and maintain.  Then begin to manage speed during descents.

Takes notes and build yourself a speed management settings and performance table for reference.

Practice.  Once the speed management becomes intuitive you are able to focus more on other skills and attention items during approach and landing.

Edited November 16, 20187 yr by fppilot

• Practise makes perfect, save a flight where you're about 1500 ft AGL on approach and keep loading it up after each landing! Keep the weather calm to begin with.
  • Watch a few YouTube videos of good approaches in the NGX and E145 and see how they're doing it.
• Use the flight director to assist you with remaining on the centreline and correct glidepath, also look out the window for the PAPI.
  • As others have suggested you may want to try with single piston prop aircraft first doing circuits, that will get you accustomed to the PAPI and how things should look out the window, also focus on the far end of the runway to assist with remaining on centreline.
• Speed management and weights are key, ensure you're touching down at the correct speed (Vapp, Vref) and flap setting for your weight, you should be fully configured (flaps and gear down, Vref+10/20) by 4 DME.

Edited November 16, 20187 yr by ckyliu

FSiPanel is software that enables you to practice landings in the pmdg 737 over and over from the same position. Might be worth you taking a look if this is all that is holding you back. 

On ‎11‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 7:13 AM, FDEdev said:

Can you land e.g. a default GA prop airplane successfully and consistently every time?

If no, I suggest  to to fly a lot of traffic patterns (without using the AP) with simple GA planes first. 

The above is a very good reason why future pilots begin with small and slow, single-engine aircraft.

What kind of hardware are you using? Not the keyboard I hope!