In 2020 I used to almost exclusively fly small GA planes, and what few airliner flights I made were on the A320. Now in 2024 I’m trying to complete the airliner training and I feel like I’m massively misunderstanding something very important. The instructor tells me to just make slow adjustments to pitch and roll, but it takes me a lot of effort to get the plane to start descending according to the glide slope. If I ease up on the yoke, the autopilot goes to full power getting the plane into a nose up attitude and stalling the plane unless I push the yoke forward fully. This all besides the fact that the instructor tells me to aim using a screw on the dash or waiting for the plane to call me a retard, which are both I believe exclusively Airbus features. Also doesn’t say anything about flaps or who knows what else.
So… am I doing someting wrong, or is this perhaps another instance of the game being not quite as perfectly polished as we hoped? Do I need to make some adjustments to autopilot or maybe autothrottle or something? I don’t know much about those things on the airliners, so it might very well be on me.
I can sort of perform a decent landing by disabling both autopilot and autothrottle (one time the game even gave me an A, just barely), but the instructor clearly says that I should be relying on the autothrottle while landing.
Edit: to be clear, I’m talking about the basic training that you get from the activities in the main menu, not career. The airplane you’re given is the 737-MAX.
Hello, so I’m not playing career mode in 24 so this will be very general. And yes, you will need to adjust those things to get a Jet to descend properly. Would need more information about which one, etc. Meanwhile…
Attitude + Power = Performance.
You will need to reduce power for a jet to descend at an acceptable airspeed and rate of descent. This could be managed with FMC VNAV settings or the A/P + A/T. When in doubt, set the A/T for 250 KTS and use V/S to initiate descent on A/P between 1,000-2,000 FPM and see if that works. When you get closer to the approach, you will need to reduce airspeed and increase lift/drag with the flaps, but that is another lesson LOL! Let us all know how it goes and what you learned!
Thanks for the reply. It’s not in the career, it’s the basic “airliner training” in the main menu, so it’s locked to the 737 MAX. I’ll edit my post to avoid confusion.
I guess I could try setting up the autopilot in the short time that I have on final, but the instructor makes it pretty clear that I should be only using autothrottle (it’s set to 140 kts by default) and manual steering, so that’s what I was trying to do. What would be the “normal” procedure, if approaching using full autopilot? When do I disengate the autopilot? And the autothrottle?
I’m not flying the Max in 24 but have lots of time in the PMDG 737s so I think I get what they are trying for here with you. A/T on at 140 sounds fine. You should be pitching the Max and trimming to that target airspeed of 140. You also need to be increasing flaps to 30 or so if that is not already done for you. Use the elevator trim to relieve control forces on the wheel, if you have one, and let the A/T set thrust until touchdown. In this lesson, you are managing half the performance formula, attitude; the Max is managing the other half, power. The trim and flaps are the glue holding it all together to make a safe landing, and of course your good judgement! Don’t forget to drop the rollers, no later than 2,500’ above the touchdown zone!