Hello! I'm new to the forums. Quick question regarding descent in the NGX that I may not be aware of, a little "problem" I am having.
In the 737-800 Winglets, let's say I am cruising at FL380, and am about to start the descent into whatever airport. I have LNAV and VNAV armed, I'm 5-10 miles from the calculated TOD, altitude window on the MCP set to 0, and cost index of 50 (if that matters?). I have mach .76 selected on the descent page of the FMC so it slows to that, then starts it's descent at the TOD that the FMC made. Now, when it descends, the pitch is like -5! Is that normal for the aircraft to be pitched down this much? If I go into outside view the aircraft clearly looks pointed down. On VNAV, the plane will adjust itself between like -3 and sometimes -10 pitch down. To get around this problem, I set my vspeed manually in the mcp to like 1600-1800 fpm down. The problem with doing this is I seem to overshoot the airport being very high.
My route will consist of a STAR and ILS landing, with the route all connected with no discontinuities on the legs page. What do you guys do to maintain a smooth descent with VNAV? I also tend to be using spoilers often to get my speed under control.
Thanks so much!
Nick
