7 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

If you don't match the thrust levers with the auto throttle setting, when you disengage the AT, you will be in for a surprise, that's for sure.

It's the first time I experienced this change in thrust after many many hours of flying the 737 but I'll defo be more aware of the matching in future.

Can anyone tell me where to find the feature in the FMC settings that gives the marker? I know my way around the menus but I don't know how its labelled in there. Cheers.

@El Diablito, Planned for a 10:00 local departure on 29/1/24.

177 Pax with 1483Kg of cargo.

Release fuel 5907Kg. ZFW 58900Kg

Arrival fuel 2249Kg.

Landing weight 61221Kg.

That's 4000Kg more than yours. Plus the 737-800 has a max pax number of  154 in PFPX. I wonder if that might be the problem.

 

20 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@El Diablito, Planned for a 10:00 local departure on 29/1/24.

177 Pax with 1483Kg of cargo.

Release fuel 5907Kg. ZFW 58900Kg

Arrival fuel 2249Kg.

Landing weight 61221Kg.

That's 4000Kg more than yours. Plus the 737-800 has a max pax number of  154 in PFPX. I wonder if that might be the problem.

 

Capacity with Skymark airlines sits at 177.

All my figures are based on real ops for flight SKY717.

Is it normal to fly that close to the edge irl? I'd imagine there's more of a safety zone up to the MLW and if there is, how do the pilots achieve a safer weight on landing given the extra freight and pax numbers for the flight?

4 minutes ago, El Diablito said:

Capacity with Skymark airlines sits at 177.

All my figures are based on real ops for flight SKY717.

Is it normal to fly that close to the edge irl? I'd imagine there's more of a safety zone up to the MLW and if there is, how do the pilots achieve a safer weight on landing given the extra freight and pax numbers for the flight?

I can see on their website 177 is max capacity for their 737-800. Beyond that I can’t really offer any more advice. I’m just a sim pilot with no r/w experience.

It does look as though they’re really packing them in.

21 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

It does look as though they’re really packing them in.

Ryanair (at 189 pax) says hello...

 

31 minutes ago, El Diablito said:

All my figures are based on real ops for flight SKY717.

Don't be surprised if a sim version doesn't match the real world figures. Even a 2% variance from the irl numbers can lead to issues in the sim that aren't faced in reality.
Reduce the ZFW by a few tonnes from the real world loadsheet and see how she lands then.

Unless it's a LVP landing, I prefer to disengage both A/T and A/P no later than the 1,000ft AGL 'gate' (usually earlier to hand-fly or if there's gusting winds).

47 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I can see on their website 177 is max capacity for their 737-800. Beyond that I can’t really offer any more advice. I’m just a sim pilot with no r/w experience.

It does look as though they’re really packing them in.

That's fine, Ray. Thanks for trying out the flight plan.

2 hours ago, El Diablito said:

The reason I ask is because it was the 1st time where "the bottom fell out" of the aircraft as soon as I disengaged. I was about 200/300ft off the ground and not over the threshold yet and the plane almost dropped like a stone

That can happen when an airplane is at the limits of its trim. That may have been the case here with the high landing weight. 

37 minutes ago, El Diablito said:

Capacity with Skymark airlines sits at 177.

All my figures are based on real ops for flight SKY717.

Is it normal to fly that close to the edge irl? I'd imagine there's more of a safety zone up to the MLW and if there is, how do the pilots achieve a safer weight on landing given the extra freight and pax numbers for the flight?

There are various reasons why you may be close to MLW on landing. One common reason we do it is tankering gas. That means that you are carrying extra fuel so that you don't have to buy fuel at a location or there may not be fuel at that location. I remember back during the wars when I flew KC-10s, we would go to this place from Frankfurt that had limited fuel. Fuel was only for coalition aircraft with missions from that base. We planned out our flights so that you would hit the IAF over MLW, do one turn in holding and be right at MLW on short final. Another reason is that you are going into a remote location and carrying extra fuel for holding and back to the alternate which happens to be your origin(Dutch Harbor ops). In biz aviation, I have also dropped off my pax at a location and then moved the jet a short distance away. The next day I go back for the pickup and load all the fuel I can because I have a long leg afterwards. I'm going to minimize my time on the ground for the pickup. At times I have calculated a brake on speed for landing so I won't be delayed by brake cooling time. Of course we verify that we can stop the jet in the remaining distance with poor braking or reversers only from touch down. In cargo ops, your allowable cargo load can put you close to MLW with a little fuel. For example, in the DC10s I flew, MZFW was 414K. MLW was 436K. That's a max of 22K of fuel. I landed above 22K on a regular. It's not odd to land at MLW.

For your AT/AP disconnect question, just ensure you kick things off early enough to get a feel of the controls and throttles. The last thing you want to do is cross the threshold, going into the flare and floundering with controls and power. You can't always judge what's going on with the AT/AP because they are reactive, especially on a gusty/bumpy landing. That's why we kick the AT off in those condition and set it/forget it. For some it's 500 for others it may be 300, but early enough to get a feel. Another technique that we use is power settings. These may be fuel flow settings or N1 settings. The idea is to know what speeds these power settings will give you when vectoring around and on approach. For example, if I set the power here, when I configure approach flaps, the aircraft will naturally want to slow to 180. Power settings are life and makes you look like a pro! There are two ways to attain them. 1. In the unreliable airspeed charts in the manual, they give you pitch and power values. 2. While flying around in sim, take note of what the AT sets to maintain speed on a calm day. Once you get a good average, that power setting will always get you close and all you have to do is fine tune. These work great in bumpy conditions too.

Lastly, as someone mentioned, make sure your physical throttles match before you kick the AT off. Always move your throttles in knob widths if you can imagine the throttle knob width. Half a knob for fine precision and a whole knob for precision. With knob widths, it's easy to know how much you put in and how much you need to take out fwd and aft.  

15 minutes ago, G550flyer said:

For your AT/AP disconnect question, just ensure you kick things off early enough to get a feel of the controls and throttles. The last thing you want to do is cross the threshold, going into the flare and floundering with controls and power. You can't always judge what's going on with the AT/AP because they are reactive, especially on a gusty/bumpy landing. That's why we kick the AT off in those condition and set it/forget it. For some it's 500 for others it may be 300, but early enough to get a feel. Another technique that we use is power settings. These may be fuel flow settings or N1 settings. The idea is to know what speeds these power settings will give you when vectoring around and on approach. For example, if I set the power here, when I configure approach flaps, the aircraft will naturally want to slow to 180. Power settings are life and makes you look like a pro! There are two ways to attain them. 1. In the unreliable airspeed charts in the manual, they give you pitch and power values. 2. While flying around in sim, take note of what the AT sets to maintain speed on a calm day. Once you get a good average, that power setting will always get you close and all you have to do is fine tune. These work great in bumpy conditions too.

Lastly, as someone mentioned, make sure your physical throttles match before you kick the AT off. Always move your throttles in knob widths if you can imagine the throttle knob width. Half a knob for fine precision and a whole knob for precision. With knob widths, it's easy to know how much you put in and how much you need to take out fwd and aft.

Great stuff, thank you!

2 hours ago, El Diablito said:

It's the first time I experienced this change in thrust after many many hours of flying the 737 but I'll defo be more aware of the matching in future.

Can anyone tell me where to find the feature in the FMC settings that gives the marker? I know my way around the menus but I don't know how its labelled in there. Cheers.

Look in Simulation page 2/7 of FMC.     

 

 

51 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

Look in Simulation page 2/7 of FMC.     

 

 

Cheers, Bob. I appreciate it.