Autopilot/Lights Help

[DTVAirport]

Hi everyone,

Below, I'm going to talk you through the process I use with the autopilot and lights, I know it's wrong in places, so if you could then let me know what I should be doing, I'd be very grateful. It's for the Boeing 737-800W by the way.

Autopilot:
> Set IAS to 12 for taxiing, switch on speed hold, switch on auto-throttle.
> Once speed reaches 12 IAS, I switch off the auto-throttle, and set IAS to 250 for takeoff
> Set heading to runway heading, altitude to whatever ATC tells me to, but add 1,000ft so the nose doesn't begin to drop once the altitude is reached, also, set vertical speed to +2000
> Switch on speed hold/auto-throttle for take-off
> Just after rotation, switch on heading hold, altitude hold, vertical speed hold, flight director and the main autopilot switch
> Once cruising altitude is reached, up the IAS setting from 250, to 480, which I believe is the average cruising speed for a B738W
> After initial descent instructions, reduce IAS back to 250
> When ILS landing structions are received, set the CRS as necessary, then switch on APP
> Once around 2,500ft has been reached, reduce IAS to 200
> As airport gets closer, reduce IAS through 190, 180, once lined up with runway, through 170 and finally to 160
> Once 160 is reached, switch off the speed hold and auto-throttle
> Altitude hold and heading hold have been switched off by the ILS
> Set IAS to 12 for post-landing taxiing
> After landing, switch everyone off except auto-throttle and speed hold which are both reactivated
> Once parked switch everything off

Lights:
> At the gate, switch on taxi, logo, nav, BCN (does BCN=beacon?) and strobe reading for taxiing
> Once airborne switch off taxi light
> Switch on the lot for landing and taxiing to the gate
> Once parked switch off all

[pilotgolfer]

I just manually taxi it. As for the 480kts IAS at cruise, remember that's INDICATED air speed. Unless you have it set to show true airspeed, you're going to way over speed, probably not even get that fast. I find out an appropriate mach number then set that in, but during climb, I just keep it at 250kts IAS because by the time I reach cruise, the mach number I put in is relatively close to there.

[pkonowrocki]

Found some mistakes and have some tips.
As for the lights:

- At the gate only switch on logo and navigation lights. I also switch on gear bay lights on and wind lights on to check for icing and/or let the mechanics check the gear.
- When you push back turn on beacon lights on - for engines start.
- For taxi have only navigation, logo, beacon and taxi lights on.
- Once allowed to enter the runway turn on your strobe lights and runway turnoff lights.
- Once on the runway turn on your landing lights.
- For me: taxi lights off as soon as gear up, runway turnoff as soon as flaps up.
- Landing lights off at 10000ft. (climb)
- Landing lights on at 10000ft. (descend)
- Taxi lights on once the gear is down.
- As soon as reversers off landing lights off, runway turnoff on
- As soon as vacated the runway, strobe off.

Also:

- Taxi manually. 5kts in terminal area, 15kts on the taxiway. If no traffic I taxi at 20-25kts.
- For me (depending on the weight) the rate of climb after take off untill I reach 10000ft is +3000ft/min. Sometimes even +3500ft/min.
-

[rohank4284]

Hi,


Great information on these procedures. Personally, I taxi around 5-7 kts. in the terminal area and about 12-16 kts. in the taxi ways. I generally enter in a speed of 225 knots in the Auto throttle field, but I generally take-off using manual thrust on most planes. On the PMDG Boeing 747-400 I plug in the right data into the FMC and use the TO/GA (take-off, go-around) feature. I generally like to fly manually for sometime so I usually fly the first 6,000 to 8,000 feet manually and then set up everything on the autopilot. As for the landing I normally follow the speeds and lighting patterns shown above.

[Big777jet]

Strobe lights on when you are on the enter runway and exit runway then turn strobe lights off. Strobe lights must be on a whole flight.

Stuart

[porter guy]

don't forget to turn of landing lights and the seatbelt sign after passing 10k

[QFCPT747]

The best way to go is downloading and printing the Flgithsim Checklists for each plane you fly, thats what i do and its awsome because it tells you what speeds to fly at, and what to do step by step

But taxi manually, and fly it manually till about 5,000 FT then set on autopilot as indicated. Also after 10000FT increase the spead from 250 to about 280-290 (depends you FL) and turn off the landing lights.

the link for the checklists: http://freechecklists.net/simchecklists.asp