Flying the PMDG 747-400 I establish on the ILS and use the APP button on the MCP to fly it down then at about 500ft or so a message comes up NO AUTOLAND. I'm wondering how to change this as I want the aircraft to autoflare. Out of interest flying VFR do pilots usually handle the last part of the approach manually?

Cheers,

Phil Bruen.

I can't speak for the PDMG 747-400 controls.  When I am flying airliners, I turn off the autopilot as soon as I am above the runway, idle the throttle, and flare for landing.  You want very little flare with airliners - just enough so you know your nose is up and not pointing down.  This prevents tail strikes and it also prevents the front of the plane slamming on the runway for a smoother landing.  When I fly VFR with GA aircraft I prefer to land manually since they are slower and much easier to maneuver than airliners.

Hi Phil,

There are various reasons why the aircraft would display NO AUTOLAND, usually because of some sort of failure or misconfiguration. For example, you will need all three autopilots engaged, the IRSes must be aligned and so on. Have you got any active failures? Are you following the FCOM approach and landing procedures fully?

In answer to the second half of your question - yes, in reality pilots will normally disconnect the automatics and land manually every time, unless the weather conditions necessitate an automatic landing.

I will get the warning too but, after configuring everything for autoland, three green will usually show up later on the glideslope.

3 hours ago, BF Bullpup said:

You want very little flare with airliners - just enough so you know your nose is up and not pointing down.  This prevents tail strikes and it also prevents the front of the plane slamming on the runway for a smoother landing.  

Nothing of the above items is correct.

Concerning manual landings; Most pilots disengage the autopilot (and in some cases the autothrottle as well) between 1000 and 500ft.

Earlier than 1500ft and your concentration starts to decrease just before touchdown. (Flying manually from the OM inbound is about the worst time to start manual flying).

Lower than 200ft is also bad because you don't have enough time to get the feel how the plane handles after disengaging the AP, trim changes etc.

 

 

Edited June 29, 20196 yr by FDEdev

On 6/29/2019 at 10:57 AM, FDEdev said:

Nothing of the above items is correct.

Concerning manual landings; Most pilots disengage the autopilot (and in some cases the autothrottle as well) between 1000 and 500ft.

Earlier than 1500ft and your concentration starts to decrease just before touchdown. (Flying manually from the OM inbound is about the worst time to start manual flying).

Lower than 200ft is also bad because you don't have enough time to get the feel how the plane handles after disengaging the AP, trim changes etc.

Sorry mate but my landings succeed all the same.  This is for FSX flying, not real-world flying.  😉  I'm always happy to try different approaches to landings, though.  Perhaps you would like to share your perspective for how airliners are to be flared for landings?

38 minutes ago, BF Bullpup said:

 Perhaps you would like to share your perspective for how airliners are to be flared for landings?

There are tons of youtube videos and manuals which show/explain when and how to flare different airliners, so there's no need to explain it here.

Concerning pitch attitudeM; Apart from the CRJ100/200 I'm not aware of a single airliner that flies the final approach at a nose down attitude,

so your statement "just enough so you know your nose is up and not pointing down" makes zero sense.

Btw, I land airlines in FSX/P3D no different than IRL.

Edited July 1, 20196 yr by FDEdev

19 minutes ago, FDEdev said:

so your statement "just enough so you know your nose is up and not pointing down" makes zero sense.

I'm afraid you have greatly misunderstood my sentence.  All I meant was to flare enough so the attitude indicator shows you are slightly above the horizontal level line and no further.  In no way was I advocating nose-down approaching and especially not nose-down flaring.  Happy landings.

44 minutes ago, BF Bullpup said:

All I meant was to flare enough so the attitude indicator shows you are slightly above the horizontal level line and no further. 

It still doesn't make sense to me. If you fly the approach with a nose up attitude, how can the pitch attitude during the flare suddenly become negative?

22 hours ago, FDEdev said:

It still doesn't make sense to me. If you fly the approach with a nose up attitude, how can the pitch attitude during the flare suddenly become negative?

All I meant was to make sure you don't accidentally let the yoke go to negative attitude when you try to flare.  When I first learned how to land airliners in FSX, after turning off the autopilot, I didn't look carefully enough at the attitude to ensure I was more positive than negative.  Result: loss of flare and crash landings.  So I learned from those crashes and am sharing my experience here.  Of course you can't flare with a negative attitude.  Relax.  🙂 

Edited July 2, 20196 yr by BF Bullpup