Hi, thanks again to all those that have helped me on this journey to learn the iFly 737 so far. 

A have a couple of other questions...

1. When landing, I disengage the AP at about 1000 feet, and hit the button again because there's an annoying alarm that sounds... is that normal? Why is that?

2. After disengaging the AP at 1000 feet, it seems the Auto Throttles are still engaged, do I just leave the throttles alone and take care of pitch, etc, with the yoke?  I was moving the thrust levers with AT enabled (I think) because this was a surprise to me, but then I let them go and it seemed to work.  What's the right thing to be doing here?

3. When setting up my FCU, I ran into a bizarre issue where a message appeared saying "insufficient fuel". I narrowed it down to filling out this field in the Perf Init screen where I entered a value for  PLAN/FUEL from Simbrief. I gather that field is not required, but worse, if you enter something there, it creates an issue with "insufficient fuel". Is this just INOP or putting the plan fuel in there was not the correct value?

 

Thanks,
-Chris.

Edited August 6, 2025Aug 6 by Virtual-Chris

1) normal AP disengage alert. 

2) not a 737 pilot, but I would disengage AT simultaneously as AP when flying a 737 in sim

3) I believe the 'Fuel" value is sensed fuel onboard? whereas the "Plan" value is pilot defined if you want the FMS to number crunch fuel you plan to have a board (and not actual fuel).

 

 

27 minutes ago, SAS443 said:

1) normal AP disengage alert. 

2) not a 737 pilot, but I would disengage AT simultaneously as AP when flying a 737 in sim

3) I believe the 'Fuel" value is sensed fuel onboard? whereas the "Plan" value is pilot defined if you want the FMS to number crunch fuel you plan to have a board (and not actual fuel).

 

 

All correct yes. 737 is generally flown with A/T off when A/P is not engaged, with the exception of the takeoff and climb where it’s kept on. 

Plan fuel is for inputting the amount of fuel you’re expecting to load, in the case you need to do all performance figures before the fuel truck has shown up. Once the fuel is loaded, the figure is populated from the fuei that is sensed aboard, ie the same figure as the fuel gauge. 

You need to input the ‘reserves’ figure in there also which is your alternate fuel plus your final reserve. This figure is given on the simbrief plan as FINRES+ALTN  

 

18 minutes ago, bennyboy75 said:

All correct yes. 737 is generally flown with A/T off when A/P is not engaged, with the exception of the takeoff and climb where it’s kept on. 

Plan fuel is for inputting the amount of fuel you’re expecting to load, in the case you need to do all performance figures before the fuel truck has shown up. Once the fuel is loaded, the figure is populated from the fuei that is sensed aboard, ie the same figure as the fuel gauge. 

You need to input the ‘reserves’ figure in there also which is your alternate fuel plus your final reserve. This figure is given on the simbrief plan as FINRES+ALTN  

 

I could swear I’ve heard a different more pleasant chime sound in tutorials when pilots disengage AP on final, or am I imagining that? 

So when I disengage the AP with the button on the yoke (pressing it twice to shut off the unnecessary alarm)… do I then toggle the AT off? Or vice versa? Does order matter?

It seems the iFly works better when you don’t enter anything in PLAN/FUEL. I had no problem with the reserves. 

Edited August 6, 2025Aug 6 by Virtual-Chris

1 hour ago, Virtual-Chris said:

I could swear I’ve heard a different more pleasant chime sound in tutorials when pilots disengage AP on final, or am I imagining that? 

So when I disengage the AP with the button on the yoke (pressing it twice to shut off the unnecessary alarm)… do I then toggle the AT off? Or vice versa? Does order matter?

It seems the iFly works better when you don’t enter anything in PLAN/FUEL. I had no problem with the reserves. 

Yes it’s one press to disconnect and then another to silence the alert. It’s purposefully loud to draw your attention to it having disconnected. 
For the A/T you don’t touch the toggle switch on the MCP, but rather assign a joystick button (I use the Boeing Thrustmaster throttles and there’s a little switch just as in the real one on the side of the thrust lever) that you press and it disconnects the A/T. The switch should stay in the armed position which IIRC gives some under speed protection, although the details of that escape me right now. 

When you click the AT disconnect button on the side of the throttles, the Autothrottle arm switch on the MCP physically snaps to off.  That switch is magnetically latched in arm, and when the disconnect button is pressed the electromagnet holding it depowers, allowing the spring loading to snap it off.

2 hours ago, Stearmandriver said:

When you click the AT disconnect button on the side of the throttles, the Autothrottle arm switch on the MCP physically snaps to off.  That switch is magnetically latched in arm, and when the disconnect button is pressed the electromagnet holding it depowers, allowing the spring loading to snap it off.

I recall long ago an SOP to leave the A/T in armed mode when flying manually as it gives some kind of minimum speed protection.  As I understand it, you achieve this by hitting the SPD button which disconnects the A/T but leave the switch latched? Or did I dream all this - long been an Airbus guy so it’s hazy. 

4 hours ago, bennyboy75 said:

I recall long ago an SOP to leave the A/T in armed mode when flying manually as it gives some kind of minimum speed protection.  As I understand it, you achieve this by hitting the SPD button which disconnects the A/T but leave the switch latched? Or did I dream all this - long been an Airbus guy so it’s hazy. 

Who knows what an individual operator might have proceduralized so it's possible you saw that somewhere, but it's definitely not the Boeing recommendation.  They recommend (and most operators follow) that the autothrottles be on for manual flight during takeoff and climb, but be disconnected for manual flight at any other time.  I know of one US airline that leaves the autothrottles on to touchdown in an otherwise manual landing, but can't say I've ever heard what you're describing.

Personally, I've never much liked the pseodo automation modes; I find they create confusion and lead to situations where the pilot is fighting the airplane.  I figure you're either flying the thing or you aren't... No need to complicate it.

11 hours ago, bennyboy75 said:

Yes it’s one press to disconnect and then another to silence the alert. It’s purposefully loud to draw your attention to it having disconnected. 
For the A/T you don’t touch the toggle switch on the MCP, but rather assign a joystick button (I use the Boeing Thrustmaster throttles and there’s a little switch just as in the real one on the side of the thrust lever) that you press and it disconnects the A/T. The switch should stay in the armed position which IIRC gives some under speed protection, although the details of that escape me right now. 

Thanks. Unfortunately, the Boeing throttle levers I bought for my Bravo only have a TOGA button, not a disengage A/T button. I'll have to map that to something else - maybe on the Alpha yoke. Although I do have the Winwing MCP, so I guess I could toggle it there. Hmm.

Has anyone flown the iFly 737 MAX after the latest SU3 beta update?

The update seems to have really messed with this plane. The WinWing MCP no longer works and the flight model feels different than before (it's worse.)

3 hours ago, RNAVV19R said:

Has anyone flown the iFly 737 MAX after the latest SU3 beta update?

The update seems to have really messed with this plane. The WinWing MCP no longer works and the flight model feels different than before (it's worse.)

Wow... that's not good. But are you sure your issue with the MCP is not the version of SimApp Pro you're using? I believe v55 is the last version that works with the iFly. Updates after that broke it (in SU2 and I assume SU3 as well). If you need v55 - DM me.

Edited August 8, 2025Aug 8 by Virtual-Chris

I have another 737 FCU question... rather than starting a new thread, hopefully some of you 737 experts will still check this thread...

If I want to go from my current position direct to a waypoint a few legs away... do I copy the waypoint I want into the scratch pad and then copy that into the field for the next waypoint on the route?  Is that the right way to do it?

10 minutes ago, Virtual-Chris said:

I have another 737 FCU question... rather than starting a new thread, hopefully some of you 737 experts will still check this thread...

If I want to go from my current position direct to a waypoint a few legs away... do I copy the waypoint I want into the scratch pad and then copy that into the field for the next waypoint on the route?  Is that the right way to do it?

Scratch pad and on top on page 1 on the legs page. 

Michael 

Yup just copy the waypoint and hit the top left line select key to put it to the top and then hit execute. 

On 8/6/2025 at 7:50 AM, Virtual-Chris said:

I could swear I’ve heard a different more pleasant chime sound in tutorials when pilots disengage AP on final, or am I imagining that? 

So when I disengage the AP with the button on the yoke (pressing it twice to shut off the unnecessary alarm)… do I then toggle the AT off? Or vice versa? Does order matter?

It seems the iFly works better when you don’t enter anything in PLAN/FUEL. I had no problem with the reserves. 

I do not know about the alarm sound in the iFly 738 MAX, but the autopilot disengagement sound that is played in the PMDG 737-600 is spot on.

I generally disengage the autothrottle first, followed immediately by the autopilot. I am perfectly stabilised on final approach at around 1000-1500 feet when I do this, so it works just fine.

EDIT: I have just watched an iFly 738 MAX landing approach video, and the autopilot disengage alarm sounds fine to me.

Edited August 8, 2025Aug 8 by Christopher Low