andreadebiase

Ok, i think i got it now. Thank you all. No i don't have autorudder set to ON. I actually never really had too much of a problem landing with crosswind, I only wanted to know how are you supposed to do it.

ok, sorry guys i am confused now, how do you just "turn the plane in to the wind"? what i am talking about here is a manual landing (no autopilot) with crosswind, i know i have to keep that runway between my legs but the wind pushes we off alignment so i need to put the nose to wind to counteract but if you don't use the rudder what do you use? did you imply the rudder trim knob as opposed to the pedals? or did you just imply to use the yoke but that would lower my wing making it a slipped approach and that's a no no on a 737 apparently.....sorry i am a biologist trying to have some more fun

But that's exactly what i am referring to, don't you make use of the rudder to do both things you mention? rudder for maintaining a crabbed (not slipped) approach and again rudder for final alignment....?

I dont mean to steal this thread for another topic but i always wandered how are crab approaches done? isn't the rudder used extensively in that situation?

Food for thought here http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_4_07/article_05_3.html I think i am starting to understand why I was getting penalized although I was aiming for OPT but i need to check on this by flying a few more times. See I had chosen a CI in the FMC AND I also did choose LRC at the same time. Seems like you do one OR the other...still unclear on this..... Anyway, I did both and I do wonder if this why I was getting conflicting instructions meaning being penalized while aiming for OPT.

mostly because I don't know yet how to use it. I thought LRC is used every time you do a very long flight but clearly that is as simple as that. I just need to do some more homework. My point though is that I was not on ECON.

mhhhh....next time I will check but i was actually on along haul going from Hawaii to KSAN and i was on a LRC CRZ not the ECON....

I just landed at KSAN runway 27 and doing it at flaps 40 was much better than my last landing in the same airport and same runway

I am trying to understand why i would be penalized if I descend to an OPT altitude from an altitude slightly above the MAX. Example, i am on FL370 and the FMC is telling on the CRZ page that my OPT is 344 and MAX is 369. If I STEP from 370 to 344 I am shown a penalty of 6,%....shouldn't i get a GAIN instead? am I misinterpreting the concept of OPT? isn't it referred to optimal fuel use? ps on another note if i want to add a pic to a post here i am asked to have on a URL....is there a specific website where to upload pics so i can put them here? thank you

Thank you. All good info. I usually lower my gear when i intercept the G/S. This is what i do. As soon as I am 12 miles out I start lowering flaps, 1, 5 and then 10. Depending on wind I may go down to 15 to slow down the plane. As soon as I intercept the G/S I lower landing gear and start lowering more flaps until I get to 30 (or 40). Landing Speed set as per FMC. As soon as runway disappears under my belly disable A/T and cut thrust to zero. Flare and touchdown. Sometimes very smooth sometimes not as smooth as i would like but most times where the two solid lines on the runway are, maybe a little past that. Sounds reasonable?

How do you exactly pick the flap setting when landing? i noticed that most times i can land with flaps 30 where I feel I have more control but i am also faster compare to flaps 40 where i am nice and slow but i also feel like a hovering balloon rather than a plane. If it is windy I prefer less flaps, not more....but all this is how it feels to me....is there a more defined guideline in real life?

Out of curiosity how did you find out that EDDW was closed? i never got this type of info from FSX ATC. Are you flying on line or you were checking EDDW in real life and turned out to be closed for real during your flight?

Ok, here is what i do and would love to hear your landing technique. Let me anticipate that i do have the tendency to float leading to a smooth touchdown but a bit too far compare to what i would like to see. Anyway my two questions are: -As soon as the runway threshold disappears under my nose I disengage A/T and cut off thrust completely. I this ok? i think i have read others keep the thrust until the tires touch the runway and i think at that point thrust automatically is cut off (??). -When do you start flaring?

I was not able to repeat this. the second time i got perfectly aligned with 5R but i didn't have the 23L freq set on NAV1 and yes probably i did what you said and messed up things.

100% because as soon as I realized that i was perfectly aligned with 5L that is the first thing i went to check on the approach page said 5R. Dan same thing for the legs, the names matched on the FCM matched the one on the plate and yet there i was on the left runway, not the right one. I don't have any addon scenery for KTYS so can't even blame a 3rd party. The only thing i did few weeks ago is to update NAVAIDS here http://www.aero.sors.fr/navaids3.html ....I sure will fly this again and try to figure it out. If it turns out messed up again i will report.

Looking for hints as to what I may have done wrong. Was landing in KTYS on runway 5R, a GPS approach with WAAS designation on the approach plate (i am still new to this approaches, mostly familiar with ILS ones and not sure what is that i need to dial in)...anyway, I had the FMC Approach page set to 5R but when i intercepted the GS I ended up perfectly aligned with 5L instead! why? is it me, FSX or both? (on a side note, on NAV1 i had the frequency for ILS 23L which is the exact opposite of 5R because i thought i was going to land on 23L but then things changed and forgot to remove the frequency....is this why I ended up aligned with the wrong runway? shouldnt because 23L has nothing to do with 5L.. thank you

You can only request runways offered in the list and that list does not include all runways. Usually what ATC offers as an alternative is a parallel runway to the assigned one which 99% of times I don't care because i still have tailwinds (which is my main reason for needing another runway). However, to give ATC some credit, I noticed that if you declare missed approach it may offer you to land on the runway with headwinds so maybe ATC knows that you are assigned a tailwind runway and instead to offer you the option to change asap forces you to do a missed approach and then you can change (kinda pathetic but hey...is FSX ATC). I have done this but because i have Traffic 360 basically there is always someone departing which forces me to a missed approach (which BTW can be fun). I have tried to fly without ATC and i find it a little weird to be on a 737 with 150 souls on board and not letting anyone know of my flightplan..... So in regard to this topic and thank you all for sharing your thoughts, is P3D any better on this front? i have asked this question in the P3D forum but no one replies which makes me that that P3D is just the same software (bugs included) with a different name.

Not strictly a PMDG 737 question but that's all i fly hence my post here. Below is a description of what I do but I am curious to know how others do it. Prior to departure when I program the route in the FMC I would normally select the arrival runway based on the metar report and this works most times, however, FSX ATC sometimes asks to land on different runways (sometimes even with tailwinds for what ever reason) and the problem is that If I get assigned a runway that is much closer to my position I have a tough time slowing down on time, respecting speeds and altitudes and getting the plane in the right configuration for landing to the newly assigned runway. ("des path unachievable" message on the FMC comes up which is not surprising but really does not help). So recently I have started to program in the FMC always the landing runway closest to my direction of arrival regardless of what the metar says so that if I get another one it can only be one that is further away which makes my flight longer but at least adds more distance allowing me to keep my approach smooth and without acrobatics to make it on time to the runway. This may be not what happens in real life but the reality is that I am bound to the FSX ATC limited options. Anyway, my question is how do you guys do it? is there a better way?

If i understand this correctly an approach category D is such when landing between 141 and 164 knots (correct?), but is that referring to the REF speed or the actual flight speed which is REF +5? example: if my REF is 139 I am a C but if i set the speed to 144 (139+5) am I a D or still C?

correct, that was not the right thing to do

didnt know KDCA had the arresting gear

la guardia and kdca are also no joke...

I am good thank you. I followed Topcat advice, dropped some cargo at departure to get in to the green zone and was able to take off smoothly and arrive with 6 left in the tanks to KMIA. CRZ altitude of 36000 feet step to 37800 as soon as FMC said was ok to do so. Landing was smooth. By the way I was flying COPA. So let me ask this then. When landing do you guys approach minimums with the FMC recommended speed (+5) or the Topcat one? sometimes they differ by few digits...

I am pretty sure that my weight units in Topcat is in pounds but now that i think about this i was departing from MMMX and......does Mexico use Kgs in aviation? Any chance 737 pmdg FMC was talking to me in Kg because i was in Mexico......but this makes no sense because if my weight is expressed in Kgs and "ok-ed" by FMC then the same number in Topcat (pounds) should also be "ok" as it is lighter so i should have got a go ahead also from Topcat right? .....most likely is the "other parts" you mention that made the difference

I am trying to better understand how is it possible that the FMC, after setting winds, fuel, payload, runway departure, GW and more.....is telling me that i am good to go and Topcat instead disagrees, telling me for example that i am 20K pounds too heavy. Of course i do go with what Topcat tells me and drop some cargo (and btw it works very well) but i was curious to know what is the big difference between the two, what main variable makes topcat really necessary and why can't the FMC do the whole job. thanks