Odosim

This is a very well written. Thank you for taking the time to inform us of your experiences. Sounds like a good plane to have.

The advice given by Scandinavian13 is what I started typing but no point repeating it. I think his comments are good. I fly small planes, medium sizes and heavies and each one is, of course different. But what they all have in common is that you become more proficient with practise. Flying the aircrafts by hand is what we should do. I have been a simulator "pilot" since 1983, if I remember rightly, and my ultimate aim when I fly any aircraft for the first time is to taxi, take off, do the circuit and land without any autopilot. It takes time and discipline to know the configurations for each phase of the flight and repeat it until it becomes second nature. I would advise that pilots who are having problems landing planes without the autopilot should just take a small plane such as a Cessna 172 or a Mooney and do the circuit day in day out until it becomes second nature without using the autopilot. I learnt by practising under windy conditions. The next thing I did was to move to turbo props. They respond differently around the circuit during take off and landings when you change throttle settings. When these types of planes are mastered, then moving to the jets is somewhat "easier" than just jumping into the jet "seat" without knowing how to hand fly the props. In order to stay proficient, I regularly fly the smaller planes, turbo props, medium jets and heavies. But when you fly any of them, forget about other planes; just fly what you have at that time. As a start with PMDG 737NGX, take off with settings for altitude, vertical speed, heading and then turn on the autopilot. Do the circuit and 10 nm out, and at the right altitude configure for descent. But do not use the ILS. Just fly the plane at the right speed and descent rate. When this is done properly we only have to make pitch adjustments for changes in descent rates and power for speed. But above all, the changes should be small. If this is practised often and with the plane well configured, we smile every time we land.