pmdg boeing 747-400 type rating course [lesson 4]

PMDG 747-400/400F TRC 4: LNAV-VNAV 4 - 1

Copyright 2006 PMDG All Rights Reserved For use with PMDG 747-400/400F ONLY

PMDG 747-400 Type Rating Course Introduction

What is the PMDG Type Course?: This type course is designed to help you learn and explore various aspects of the PMDG 747-400 that you might not otherwise have discovered after reading the supplied documentation. Please note that this type course will assume that you have read the documentation we supplied with the airplane. This course will also assume that you have printed the Chapter 5 Normal Procedures checklists, and the Flight Use Checklist to use and follow during the type course. The entire type course will consist of several lessons broken into pieces. These pieces will roughly reconstruct the entire type rating maneuver evaluation conducted for certification in the 747-400 type aircraft. Please note that this type course is written very generally for the learning and interest of our flight simulator customers and does not reflect the actual operating procedure of any specific carrier or training techniques taught by any specific training facility. This type course may contain errors and omissions which we may correct from time to time at our discretion. Additionally it stands to reason that no aspects of this course should be used for any purpose other than the enjoyment of our PMDG 747-400/400F simulation products. Lesson Plan Overview: The PMDG Type Course will begin at KBFI, where you will learn to power up the PMDG 747 from a parked and de-powered state. You will be taken through programming of the FMC for a flight from Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, (KBFI) to Moses Lake, Washington (KMWH) where you will learn to conduct various visual and instrument approaches in order to improve your proficiency with the PMDG 747-400. Along the way some lessons may require repetition in order to help you learn specific tasks. To help with this repetition process, we will provide specific saved flights that you should load and run in order to ensure that your experience matches the teaching materials for the course. Please remember at all times that in the complex field of aviation there are many different regulatory bodies, corporate policies and personal operating procedures that vary from others, and sometimes they even conflict with one another. Do not be intimidated by different techniques, as it is always valuable to expand your skills as a pilot but we recommend that you use the techniques we teach in this course at least initially until your grain comfort with the airplane. Our hope is that upon completion of this Type Course, you will have gained sufficient experience with the operation of the PMDG 747-400 to dramatically increase your enjoyment of this simulation. It has been our experience that many customers never take the time to really learn the depths of this simulation and subsequently miss out on the true simulation value and learning experience of this product. We hope that this type course will help you to experience just how complex this PMDG 747-400 simulation truly is!

4 - 2 PMDG 747-400/400F TRC 4: LNAV - VNAV

For use with PMDG 747-400/400F ONLY Copyright 2006 PMDG All Rights Reserved

PMDG 747-400 Type Rating Course Lesson Four: LNAV-VNAV

Lesson Four Overview: For this exercise we are going to return to our originally scheduled flight plan from KBFI – KMWH. We will fly the majority of the flight to Moses Lake, while making some modifications to the flight plan and to our climb/descent profile along the way. The purpose of this lesson is to familiarize you with the operation of LNAV and VNAV in order to simplify your navigation through 3D space. I have provided a series of saved flights. These flights are designed to work with specific sections of this lesson, and you will be prompted which saved flight to load during each phase of the lesson. Each saved flight will be used to demonstrate a different technique for takeoff. Some of the saved flights may be reused a few times in order to demonstrate different techniques. This lesson picks up where Lesson Two ended, so you will notice that the aircraft/FMS setup is familiar! This lesson will take you through a normal takeoff using one of the takeoff profiles that you have already used. You will then use LNAV and VNAV with the airplane coupled to the autopilot in order to learn some of the finer operating techniques of these high level pitch/roll modes. Reading the lesson in steps and conducting the procedures discussed according to the schedule laid out in this lesson plan will greatly improve your handling and confidence when using the autopilot. What you will need: The following items are needed in order for you to gain the most benefit from this course:

• You must have a copy of the Type Course source files. (You should have them if you are reading this!)

• You should print ALL of Chapter 5: Normal Procedures and keep it nearby for reference. (Hint: Windows START menu, ALL PROGRAMS, then PMDG Simulations, PMDG 747-400 Operating Manuals.)

• You will also need to print the CHECKLIST located in the PMDG Simulations, PMDG 747-400 menu as well.

You will find it most helpful to print this Lesson Plan before commencing. Additionally, we find that it is helpful if you keep your checklists nearby in printed format as you will reference them continually during your first few starts. You can use any PMDG 747-400/400F livery for the purpose of this course as it may suite your taste. The images within the documentation will be from the new PMDG 747-400F. Installing This Type Course Lesson: The ZIP file that contains the lesson plan should be unzipped to your main Flight Simulator directory. We have structured the zip file so that all of the required files will be appropriately placed in the correct directories for you provided that you have “use directories” selected in WinZip. If you have problems, just copy the following files to the correct locations:



PMDG-744-TRC-<lesson name>.sav -> <Flight Sim Root Directory>\PMDG\747400\PanelState\ PMDG-744-TRC-<lesson name>.FLT -> <Flight Sim Root Directory>\Flights\PMDG\ PMDG-744-TRC<lesson name>.WX -> <Flight Sim Root Directory>\Flights\PMDG\ PART ONE: It’s just basic navigation!: Note: At this point, please stop your simulation and use the FLIGHTS, Select A Flight menu in MSFS to load the saved flight PMDG_744_TRC_Lesson_4_Part_1. Goal: The point of this lesson section is to take you through a normal takeoff and climb out including a level off at intermediate altitudes. THIS LESSON SHOULD BE FLOWN BY THE AUTOPILOT WITH THE FLIGHT DIRECTOR. The auto throttle will control power for you during the initial climb. Takeoff. You’ve done this a few dozen times by now, it should seem. After completing the PMDG 747-400 Type Rating Course 2 and PMDG 747-400 Type Rating Course 3, you should be able to handle your takeoffs like a professional. This flight is going to start off no differently, but today we are going to spend a bit more time focused on LNAV and VNAV for your initial departure and climb profile. Start Flight Simulator 2004 and use the SELECT FLIGHT option to load PMDG-744-TC-Lesson4_Part_One from within the PMDG folder. Your aircraft will appear sitting on the runway at Boeing Field. This is an exact replica of a setup from one of the previous lessons. This flight picks up with the aircraft ready for takeoff, and all checklists completed! The only thing left for you to do is to set the Autobrake to RTO (remember- this is one switch that just won’t save it’s position….) Now before we go, it’s important to have some understanding of what we are doing, and what is about to happen. To gain this understanding, lets talk for a moment about LNAV. LNAV, for those who don’t know, is the acronym for Lateral NAVigation. At some point, nearly all of us have loaded up the default Cessna or some other standard cockpit airplane and have flown courses to and from VORs within flight simulator. You will recall that in order to track the desired VOR radial, it was necessary to manage your aircraft heading in order to track the center of the selected radial to/from the VOR. This process of using heading to maintain a course is the very simple heart of LNAV. LNAV is a very complicated and grown-up-pilot way of telling the airplane to fly the course that you have programmed into the FMC. On of the great benefits of LNAV is that the airplane will follow any course that has been programmed, and it will do so through turns and changes in course until reaching the end of the programmed route of flight. Whether the course to be flown has many convoluted turns to accommodate sophisticated departure and arrival procedures- or whether the flight plan is nearly perfectly straight- LNAV will steer the course until reaching the end of your routing. To describe the task of LNAV quite simply: LNAV’s function is to keep the airplane following the course as described in the FMC.



Picture a route drawn between fixes on a map, as the route changes direction, LNAV simply commands the heading of the airplane to change until the new course leg is being tracked to a high degree of precision. LNAV will automatically adjust for winds from any quadrant. From an autopilot perspective, LNAV is a “Roll Mode.” This means that LNAV will roll the wings of the airplane left/right to adjust the heading of the airplane in order to follow the course defined in the FMC. To go back to our VOR tracking exercise mentioned earlier, you will find that you do the same thing when manually flying to track a VOR radial; you roll the airplane left and right in order to maintain the centerline of the course. LNAV does this equally well with the benefit of some very sophisticated accelerometers and some complicated math. Fortunately- none of this is of much importance to you after you push the LNAV button the Autopilot Mode Control panel. All that fancy gadgetry will simply command the airplane to fly a heading that maintains the course you have programmed into the FMC. There are a few things that you need to accomplish in order to operate LNAV:

1) Program your route of flight into the FMC. (Make sure your route has been EXECuted!) 2) After takeoff, ensure that the airplane is laterally on your course, or on a heading to cross

your course. (The course is depicted by the magenta line on the NAV display.) 3) Press LNAV to arm or activate LNAV (depending on your currently selected autopilot roll

mode and phase of flight.) There are even fewer big pitfalls to remember with LNAV:

1) If the airplane is not on a heading to intercept your course (due to winds or direction of flight, for example) then the airplane will reject your attempt to arm LNAV and warn you via the FMC message “Not on Intercept Heading.”

2) If you place fixes too close together to define a turn, the airplane may be unable to maintain the centerline of the course during the turn. This is normal, but generally indicates that you have set the airplane up to fail. In the real world you would rarely see this situation.

For this lesson we will concentrate primarily on the use of navigation fixes contained within the FMC database in order to describe the course of flight. When we get into some of the approach lessons, we will use manually defined fixes in order to transcribe a detailed approach course for the airplane to fly. You will note that there is only a single LNAV mode. Unlike VNAV, which has a few different ways to handle it’s own tasks, LNAV is “just LNAV.” Either it is operating, or it is not… PART TWO: It’s just basic navigation, only vertical!: VNAV is easily one of the most misunderstood tools on the flight deck. Described simply, VNAV is just one tool to manage your altitude during flight. How hard can that be? Well….. It’s not- but since VNAV conducts its affairs using a couple of different modes, it is easy for untrained users to becomes confused and misunderstand its operation. So lets start our discussion about VNAV by building a mental model of what VNAV does for your flight plan. When you have entered your entire route of flight, and finished initializing the FMC so that it knows your planned cruising altitude, VNAV looks at the altitude profile of your flight, and constructs a plan for how it can manage your flight plan most effectively.



Much like the way LNAV describes your course in terms of left/right turns that connect the fixes on your flight plan, VNAV describes the altitude plan for your flight by using climbs/descents. The beauty of VNAV is that it is able to use some very complex performance data to predict the performance of your airplane in all flight phases and weights. Since computers are marvelous for just this type of wrote task, VNAV is able to build a 3Dimensional path from initial climb to final descent. If you picture your flight plan from KBFI to KMWH, it is easy to see how your path makes subtle turns if you plot the flight plan on a chart. Now imagine turning that chart sideways so that you are looking at the vertical profile of your flight. You will see a climb phase, a level flight phase and a descent phase. The level flight phase is pretty easy to understand, but most sim pilots have trouble understanding what is taking place during the climb/descent phases. You are probably familiar with the concept of an ILS. An ILS has a localizer which provides your lateral course guidance to keep you on the runway centerline, and a glide-slope that provides your descent path guidance to the touchdown zone. The glide-slope provides you with the vertical guidance you need from the beginning of the approach down to the runway. When VNAV plans a climb or descent path for your flight, it is essentially providing you with what amounts to an imaginary glide-slope that describes your climb or descent. The difference is that this imaginary glide-slope is derived mathematically, and can be changed to suite the needs of your flight plan in order to obtain the results you need. For example, one of the truly powerful aspects of VNAV is that you can program altitude restrictions into your route of flight in order to instruct VNAV to navigate across a particular fix at, above or below a specific altitude thus giving you tremendous control over the way in which your climbs and descents are handled! Another very powerful advantage to using VNAV is that you can enter speed and altitude targets for any fix along your route of flight, thus giving you true control of your aircraft’s energy state at any point along your route of flight. This capability, when coupled with LNAV, means that you can precisely control the position, altitude and speed of the airplane in all phases of flight simply by programming your requirements into the FMC. The airplane will manage the climbs/descents as efficiently as possible given your restrictions. To use an example, many arrival procedures will assign progressively lower altitudes as you get closer to the end of the arrival procedure. These same procedures often contain speed restrictions in order to facilitate the workflow for ATC. The FMS takes these speed/altitude restrictions into account when planning your descent along the procedure route thus ensuring that the airplane’s energy is managed correctly to reach all of the assigned crossing restrictions on speed and on altitude. This simplifies your workload tremendously! Many sim pilots do not realize that when using VNAV to manage your vertical profile in flight, the AFDS will select from one of three different VNAV pitch modes in order to manage the airplane in flight. To understand what your aircraft is doing during flight, it is important to recognize that each of these modes is different, and each mode tells you something unique about your current phase of flight.



The three modes that you may see displayed as the active pitch mode while operating in VNAV:

• VNAV SPD • VNAV PTH • VNAV ALT

The mathematics behind each of these modes is highly complex, (and modeled correctly in your PMDG 747-400/400F) but I am going to boil each mode’s behavior down to a simple-to-understand concept as this will most effectively help you see and understand what VNAV is doing during your flight. VVNNAAVV SSPPDD:: In VNAV SPD mode, the auto throttle commands a steady thrust output while the autopilot adjusts the pitch of the airplane to maintain a desired speed. The result (depending upon whether you have climb thrust or idle thrust set by the auto throttle) will be a climb or descent. If you watch the airplane’s performance closely while in VNAV SPD mode, you can expect to see a constant thrust setting, and a carefully adjusted pitch setting, resulting in a constant speed and a mostly-constant rate of climb or descent. This is very similar to the constant airspeed climb/descents we conducted during TRC Lesson 3: adjust thrust to the desired climb/descent thrust setting then raise/lower the nose in order to maintain the desired speed. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about here- please review TRC Lesson 3!) For this reason, VNAV SPD is called a “pitch for speed” mode. Pitch is the variable input that the airplane will use to maintain a constant speed during a climb or descent. The climb/descent rate will vary based on a myriad of details such as aircraft weight, selected thrust setting (de-rated thrust), etc. (FLCH mode operates this way as well, but VNAV is more automated since you do not have to set the speed target manually on the MCP.) You should note that in VNAV SPD mode, vertical speed is *NOT* a constant and you will get whatever climb/descent rate happens to achieve the target airspeed for the thrust setting in use. At very light weights, you will have tremendous climb rates, and at heavy weights you will have lower climb rates, but you can be assured that your climb rate is optimal for the thrust/speed assignments made to VNAV via the FMC. VNAV SPD is used in both climbs and descents. This is the optimal climb and descent mode because it gives you the maximum rate of climb within the constraints of the operating limitations and efficiencies that you have programmed into the FMC VVNNAAVV PPTTHH:: I mentioned earlier that in order to facilitate VNAV, the FMS takes your input via the FMC then builds a 3Dimensional vertical profile of your route of flight by using a complex set of mathematics and aircraft performance data contained within the FMS. When building your 3Dimensional vertical profile, the FMS takes into consideration the engine thrust limits you have selected, the various waypoint altitude restrictions and assignments that you have made, and the aircraft performance tables. It uses this information to develop a 3D plan for the climb, cruise and descent phase of flight. This plan is called a “Vertical Path.” It is important to note that the vertical path calculated by the FMS will change during your flight as you add manual speed/altitude restrictions to your flight plan, or when you load a SID/STAR that has restrictions coded as part of the procedure. Don’t worry too much about how or why the path calculation



might change, just keep in mind that the FMS will always define the path as the most efficient way to accomplish the flight. Some pilots have a hard time picturing what we mean when talking about “vertical path.” Think of the vertical path in terms of your flight’s altitude plan drawn as a vertical profile. (Imagine a walking bridge that crosses crossing a busy roadway. You will climb up one side, then cross the flat portion of the bridge, then descend the other side. If viewed from the road this climb/cross/descend roughly describes your “Vertical Path” while crossing the busy roadway.) Optimally, when operating in VNAV, the AFDS will try to keep the airplane on the calculated vertical path because this path represents the most efficient vertical profile given the restrictions described by the flight plan. (These restrictions might be altitude/speed restrictions entered by you, or encoded as part of a SID/STAR) When the AFDS is keeping you on the planned vertical path, VNAV operates in VNAV Path mode, and VNAV PTH will be displayed on the primary flight display as your active pitch mode. Why is it important to know when you are on your planned vertical profile? Lets use an example where ATC has told you to “descend to reach ABC at, and maintain 10,000 feet, then after crossing XYZ descend to 5,000.” Once you have your crossing restrictions entered into your flight plan in the FMC, the FMS will calculate the descent path to reach ABC at 10,000, then it will calculate a level flight portion until reaching XYZ before calculating a descent to 5,000. As you continue your descent, the airplane will momentarily level off while transiting between ABC and XYZ, and since the pitch mode is displaying VNAV PTH, you will know that the airplane is continuing to fly the vertical profile as defined in the FMC. In other words, you can be assured that the airplane will resume it’s descent upon crossing XYZ as assigned. Think of VNAV PTH as a vertical version what LNAV does when it tracks the magenta course line to follow your route. LNAV turns the airplane left/right to follow a defined course, and VNAV climbs/descends he airplane to follow a defined vertical path. If you imagine coupling LNAV and VNAV together in this manner, you can see why these two modes make such a powerful navigation tool for managing speed and altitude restrictions when flying an approach! VVNNAAVV AALLTT:: VNAV Altitude mode is a often misunderstood mode- but is actually quite simple! VNAV ALT will be displayed as your current pitch mode any time the airplane has leveled off at an altitude that is not the currently planned vertical profile. For example, if you are climbing to your cruising altitude of 31000 and ATC requests that you stop your climb at 28000, you would set 28000 into the MCP and the airplane would level at FL280 from it’s VNAV climb. When level, the vertical mode would be announced as VNAV ALT, since the airplane is still operating in VNAV, but is holding altitude as desired by the crew entry of 28000 into the MCP. This is true for descents as well: if you intervene by setting an altitude into the MCP Altitude window that is higher than the altitude to which VNAV was planning to descend, the airplane will level at your MCP altitude and display VNAV ALT as your pitch mode. Remember that VNAV ALT is displayed when you have intervened in the climb/descent!



So lets review: VNAV SPD: Thrust is set to climb/descend and the pitch us used to maintain a specific speed. This is the optimally efficient climb/descent method. VNAV PTH: The airplane is being operated on the calculated vertical profile path for the flight. VNAV ALT: The airplane has leveled off above/below the calculated vertical profile path based upon crew intervention via the MCP Altitude window. Easy enough, yes? PART THREE: Climbing the Ladder: When you first program your flight, you enter a cruise altitude into the FMC. This tells VNAV that you plan to climb to this altitude as your cruise altitude, and is an important piece of information to allow VNAV to build your climb profile. Do you recall the exercises we conducted during LESSON 3 to effect climbs and descents using manual thrust or the auto throttle? Those skills will come in handy if you choose to hand fly a VNAV climb profile by following the flight director, however for this exercise we are going to keep the airplane coupled to the autopilot with the auto throttles controlling thrust. The key to climbs is to turn all excess thrust into climb performance. If left to our own devices, most of us would just push the throttles all the way forward, then pitch the nose up to maintain our desired climb speed. While effective, this isn’t the most efficient method, so our airlines prefer that we use VNAV to manage the climb as the computers take into account such things as cost indexes, wind, thrust derates and other adjustments that can have a minor impact on climb performance but a BIG impact on the overall operating cost of the airplane. One big advantage to VNAV is that the airplane uses all of its internal aircraft performance data along with information manually entered by the crew (such as speed/altitude restrictions, cost index and thrust limit modes) to manage the speed of the aircraft as well as the climbs and descents. Any pilot will tell you that speed management is the key to effective climbs and descents, and since VNAV manages both you wind up with a truly efficient and safe aircraft operation at all altitudes. When it comes to speed management, VNAV has imbedded logic that we call “Speed Protection.” This means that VNAV will not allow the airplane to be operated below the maneuvering margin speed for any given flap setting, nor will VNAV allow the airplane to overspeed in descents or during approaches. To truly grasp VNAV’s effectiveness as a tool, it is important to begin thinking of your total energy management package: altitude and airspeed. VNAV will make that process simple by planning climbs and descents to take best advantage of the airplane’s capabilities. But here is the catch: (There is always a catch, right?) VNAV is a highly powerful tool that can be make your life easy, but VNAV can make your life difficult if you set it up to fail. VNAV will not allow you to overspeed or underspeed the airplane when making climbs or descents, so your climb/descent planning must provide climb/descent paths that fit within the airplanes performance capabilities. I’ll talk more about this in a few pages…. Another “gotcha” is that VNAV will never allow the airplane to climb/descend through the altitude you have set in your MCP altitude window, or an altitude you have as a restriction in your flight



plan. Whichever of these two altitude figures the airplane reaches first, it will stop the climb or descent until told to do otherwise by a change in the MCP ALT setting or by a change in the flight plan’s defined altitude restriction. This might seem a bit confusing- but I’ll take you through some exercises in a moment that will demonstrate why it is useful! So what are you going to see during climbs? When conducting a climb in VNAV, you will see VNAV SPD displayed as your current pitch mode. VNAV SPD is your indication that the airplane is going to set the maximum climb thrust and adjust pitch to maintain speed during the climb. The result will be that you have the most efficient rate of climb. During your initial climb, you should understand that VNAV is going to use “speed intervention” to prevent you from accelerating beyond your flap speed limits during the climb, so in order to accelerate you will need to continue retracting your flaps based upon the flap retraction schedule displayed on your PFD. I’m seeing a blank stare on your face…. Okay- lets go through a quick review of what you are going to see during the takeoff, shall we? Note: At this point, please stop your simulation and use the FLIGHTS, Select A Flight menu in MSFS to load the saved flight PMDG_744_TRC_Lesson_4_Part_1. We are going to conduct this takeoff in order to show you a “live demo” of how VNAV uses a combination of logic to provide you with altitude protection, speed protection and optimum climb rates in a very busy part of the flight: Takeoff. (Please read this section before trying this in the simulator, as you will observe things more critically if you know what the system is going to do for you!) For this takeoff, I want you to bring your throttles up to 70% and engage the auto throttle. As you climb above 500’ I want you to engage the autopilot and allow the AFDS to do the hard work so that you can concentrate on watching how VNAV operates to keep you on speed and altitude efficiently. Ready? Okay- here is what happens: Just before takeoff, our Flight Mode Annunciator on the PFD will look like this:

Indicating to us that TO/GA is going to be used for the initial takeoff, but that VNAV is armed to take over pitch commands. After activating the auto-throttle, the FMA will show that THR REF is active as the thrust mode.

Once thrust has been set and the aircraft accelerates above 60 knots, the auto-throttle will indicate that thrust HOLD mode is active, as displayed on the FMA:



After rotation, you will retract the landing gear and pitch up to maintain V2 or V2+10 depending upon your preference. (Or at light weights- just pitch up until the airplane stops accelerating, remember?) During the climb you are going to notice a few things happening in rapid succession:

1) At 500’ AGL, VNAV is going to activate and take over pitch commands to the flight director. When this happens, the speed bug is going to jump up to your climb speed, and VNAV will begin managing all of your speed/pitch requirements to help you through your climb and acceleration from now until level off. Just follow the flight director! (You will notice that the speed bug jumps to approximately the same speed that you were able to capture by following the flight director in the previous section. Smart airplane, isn’t it?)

2) At 1000’ AGL, (Remember setting your Flap/Acceleration height on the THRUST REF page?) VNAV is going to command you to lower the nose slightly in order to begin accelerating the airplane in order to retract the flaps. The speed bug will jump to 235 knots, and you should simply follow the pitch cue for proper acceleration.

3) As you pass the small green 5 on your speed tape, select FLAPS 5. You will notice the

red overspeed bricks will slide upward and the FMS will move your speed bug to 250 knots, as this is the new speed limit that must be observed. (This is the true value of VNAV speed management! You are very busy right now, but the computer can easily keep track of how fast you should go- and move the bug accordingly.)

4) As you continue your flap retraction sequence, the airplane will accelerate to 250 knots.

When you reach 250 knots, pay close attention to the pitch angle and the vertical speed. Vertical speed will be approximately 1700 f/min as you approach 250 knots but then pitch will increase to 14 degrees and while airspeed remains constant, vertical speed will increase to nearly 4000 f/min! (the airplane is converting all that extra thrust into climb energy!)

5) Since VNAV monitors the MCP altitude window, it will not allow the airplane to pass

through whatever altitude is set in the MCP Altitude window, and instead it will level the airplane at whatever altitude it sees there. In this case, we have selected 5000’ as our ATC assigned level-off altitude, and you will see your pitch mode change to VNAV ALT indicating that the airplane intends to level off as a result of “Altitude Intervention” by the crew via the MCP Altitude window.

When you have leveled at 5000’ and the airplane has finished trimming for level flight, your PFD should look like this:



Hit pause on your simulator, as I want to walk you through a few things that are important for you to notice, but we really don’t want to go wondering to close to Mt. Rainier….. First, take a look at your MCP IAS/MACH window. You will notice that the window is blank and does not display your current speed. Why is this?

Remember that I’ve explained that VNAV controls not only altitude, but airspeed? When VNAV is managing your airspeed the FMS takes into account your flight plan speed restrictions, SID/STAR speed restrictions, altitude-speed restrictions (250 knots below 10,000’, for example) and of course your structural/flap speed restrictions. Provided that you have diligently ensured that your FMC is programmed with the correct information for your flight, VNAV will keep you safely within the protected speed envelope and within the speed limitations for your flight plan. Your indication that VNAV minding the speed is a blank MCP IAS/MACH window. In most all phases of flight, you gain the most efficiency and performance by flying the airplane in VNAV. While in VNAV, you won’t see a speed displayed on the MCP IAS/MACH window, so it stands to reason that for the vast majority of your flying you will see this window blanked. So what should you do in the event that ATC gives you a speed restriction? (faster or slower!) That depends on whether the speed restriction is short term or long term! If you are being vectored in/out of the terminal area and ATC asks for a specific speed, it is simplest to use the speed intervention capability of the MCP by pushing on the MCP knob and dialing in your assigned speed. (Try it! Set your speed to 240 knots….) If you are being given a long term speed adjustment, (ATC tells you to plan your Atlantic crossing at .82M instead of your flight planned .84M, for example) then you probably want to program the change right into your flight plan… (We’ll cover this later…)



Okay- now lets review a few high level functions of VNAV during the climb. Who Needs All That Vertical Speed?: Did you notice that incredible climb rate during your initial climb to 5000’? Impressive climb performance for a flying city-block, but not very good if you consider how much fuel you burn running the engines at maximum rated climb power. When operating the airplane at light weights like we are today, I recommend selecting a de-rated climb thrust by pulling up the THRUST LIMIT page in the FMC and adjusting the climb power selection as shown here:

Speeding Legally with VNAV: During flight VNAV will never command any speed that is lower than the maneuvering speed for your current flap setting. This is done to prevent you from inadvertently stalling the airplane or entering the stall buffet. At heavier weights, the 747-400 will frequently require speeds faster than 250 knots if the flaps are retracted, so this would appear to put you in conflict with the well known “250knots below 10,000MSL” maximum speed in the USA. Not to fear! The air traffic controlling agencies are well aware that a heavily loaded 747 needs to go faster than 250 knots when operating without flaps. They also know that leaving flaps out during the climb is horribly inefficient. The legal restriction in the US allows you to travel at 250 knots OR your slowest clean maneuvering speed, whichever is faster.” So when VNAV sets the speed bug to 265 knots during a heavy climb, don’t worry… Just tell ATC that you will be maintaining 265 knots clean maneuvering speed during your climb. (If an online ATC controller tries to argue the 250 knot limit with you: Simply refer them to 91.117 paragraph (d). “If the minimum safe airspeed for any particular operation is greater then the maximum speed prescribed in this section, the aircraft may be operated at that minimum speed.”) If you are operating a light or medium weights however it is unlikely that VNAV will require a speed above 250 knots, but do trust what VNAV sets as the target climb speed. PART FOUR: Are we On the Right Path?: For an advanced example of VNAV’s capabilities, re-load PMDG_744_TRC_Lesson_4_Part_1 then bring up the LEGS page on the FMC. For this exercise, we are going to manually build a few “dummy” waypoints that include altitude restrictions for your initial climb. For this exercise, we are going to assume that ATC has given us the following instructions for our takeoff: “Climb runway heading to 3000.’ Plan to reach 3000’ before 5nm from KBFI. Maintain 3000 until 15nm from KBFI then climb maintain 6000.”



(Yes this is a completely bogus climb instruction, but I’m more interested in showing you how VNAV can take a complex situation and make it simple to navigate- so work with me here.) ;-) Since we are lazy pilots, we want VNAV to manage this climb for us. To do this, we just need to tell the FMC what ATC expects from us during departure. Type the following into the scratch pad an up-select to the 1L LSK: KBFI130/5 You have just told the system to place a pseudo-waypoint 5nm from KBFI on a 130 heading. Next, type the following and up-select to the 2L LSK: KBFI130/15 Your FMC display screen should now look like this:

Note that on the right side of your screen you can see the speeds and altitudes that the FMS predicted for your climb. However, we still need to place the ATC assigned restrictions into the flight plan, so type lets take them in order. Enter a 3000 foot altitude restriction at the first waypoint by typing 3000 into the scratch pad and up-selecting to the 1R LSK. You will note that 3000 appears in large font, indicating that this was a manually entered restriction. Do the same for your second waypoint. Close the “Route Discontinuity” (down-select NORMY then up-select to the 3L LSK) press the EXECute key and your our FMC display should now look like this:

Take a moment to see how the FMS has looked at your climb performance and predicts that you will still be climbing/accelerating when you cross your first waypoint, so it anticipates a speed of 166 knots, but it knows that you will accelerate to 250 knots before reaching your second waypoint, so your speed is reported across this waypoint as 250 knots?



VNAV is a very intelligent system, and you can use this capability to make your life easy! Reach up and set your MCP ALT window to read 3000, since this is the altitude we are now assigned for this climb. Now lets commence our takeoff normally, using TO/GA and VNAV. Engage the autopilot as you climb through 500’ so that you can concentrate on how VNAV will manage your climb assignment. Note: If at any time you wish to repeat this portion of the exercise without reprogramming your FMC, you can simply use the FLIGHTS, Select A Flight menu in MSFS to load the saved flight PMDG_744_TRC_Lesson_4_Part_2. Now, lets talk through what you might expect to see based upon our previous discussions of VNAV: (Note: You may get an >FMC MESSAGE: UNABLE NEXT ALT warning from the FMC in this exercise, simply press the CLR key- as this message is a result of the manner in which we’ve programmed our demo waypoints so close to the performance limits of the airplane…) At 500’AGL, your TOGA pitch mode will change to VNAV SPD (engage the autopilot now!) The airplane will continue the climb, lowering the nose a bit to help with acceleration, and eventually change pitch modes to capture your assigned altitude. Do you know which VNAV pitch mode it will switch to? If you said VNAV PTH, you are correct! Why? Because at 3000, the airplane is on it’s VNAV assigned vertical profile as you defined in your flight plan! Go ahead and fly the takeoff, and pause the simulator when you have gone level at 3000’… Okay- now that you are paused, bring up your FMC LEGS page and take a look at the altitude assignment that we show for KBFI02: 3000’ MSL, right? We were given this assignment by ATC prior to departure in order to keep us at an altitude below conflicting traffic. Un-pause the simulator, and watch as the airplane continues to fly away from KBFI. (Ignore any deviation from the magenta track, we are still in TOGA roll mode, and we just want to track the runway heading, right?) Using your new understanding of VNAV SPD/VNAV PTH/VNAV ALT modes, can you predict what is going to happen once the airplane passes KBFI02?: The answer is quite logical when you look at it in pieces: First the airplane will remain at 3000’ because your MCP ALT is still set to 3000’. Remember- the airplane will never depart from the MCP ALT window assigned altitude unless instructed to do so by changing the MCP ALT window altitude. This makes sense, since you never want the airplane departing from your assigned altitude simply because it wants predicts that it needs a climb or descent! (ATC would be very unhappy!) In order for the airplane to climb or descend you must provide approval for the maneuver by changing your MCP ALT setting! Now, since we know the airplane is going to remain at 3000’, and we also know that VNAV has calculated a Vertical Profile Path that climbs to FL210 beginning after crossing KBFI02, can you predict what you will now see as your VNAV Pitch Mode? If you said VNAV ALT, then you are correct! Why? Because the airplane is now holding an altitude that is above or below the Vertical Profile Path that was calculated by the FMS for your flight!



Makes sense, right? Okay- now lets re-fly that same departure, with another knowledge test along the way! Note: Use the FLIGHTS, Select A Flight menu in MSFS to load the saved flight PMDG_744_TRC_Lesson_4_Part_2. Re-fly the same departure, and engage the autopilot as you climb through 500’AGL. When you are level at 3000’, and VNAV PTH is annunciated as your pitch mode, reach up and select 6000’ in the MCP ALT window. Remember a moment ago when I mentioned that the airplane will never depart from an assigned MCP ALT in order to prevent the airplane from changing altitudes without your approval? This time, we are taking a slightly different approach to the same situation. Assume for a moment that ATC has told you “15nm south of KBFI continue your climb to 6000’.” You are level at 3000’ and in VNAV PTH, so you can simply reach up and set the MCP ALT window to 6000. (Do not press the knob in this instance.) The airplane will remain at 3000 because it is following your VNAV calculated vertical profile path, as evidenced by the VNAV PTH annunciation on your PFD. So do you know what will happen once you pass your KBFI02 fix with the 3000’ altitude restriction? The airplane is now clear of the 3000 altitude restriction defined in your flight plan, and it will want to continue climbing. Since you set the MCP ALT window to a higher altitude VNAV with change to VNAV SPD and commence a climb until reaching your MCP ALT of 6000’ at which point it knows you want it to level out. The end result is that you wind up at 6000’ in VNAV ALT mode because your VNAV Profile Path is now climbing above you to FL210, but ATC won’t lets us climb just yet! Did that makes sense? Now lets try another example that demonstrates what happens when the airplane intersects your Vertical Profile Path before it reaches your MCP ALT: Note: Use the FLIGHTS, Select A Flight menu in MSFS to load the saved flight PMDG_744_TRC_Lesson_4_Part_2. This time, before commencing our departure, ATC amended our departure clearance to “15nm south of KBFI climb and maintain 6000.” We could leave our MCP ALT knob set to 3000 then try very hard to remember that we are supposed to climb to 6000, but our goal is always to make things as simple as possible! After all, we are lazy pilots and we like the make the machine do as much of the calculating and remembering work as possible. So reach up and set your MCP ALT knob to 6000 and think through what is about to happen!



The airplane will climb in VNAV SPD, then it will see that we have an altitude restriction programmed at KBFI01 for 3000. As such, the airplane will respect this restriction and switch to VNAV PTH since it is going to follow our Vertical Profile Path between KBFI01 and KBFI02. Once the airplane reaches KBFI02, can you predict based on your previous experience what the airplane will do? If you assumed that the airplane would re-enter a VNAV SPD climb to 6000’ then you are right! Why? By setting the MCP ALT window to 6000, we have told the airplane, “we want to reach 6000 as our altitude.” Since the airplane will not allow itself to cross either our flight plan Vertical Profile Path (those 3000’ restrictions we added!) or our MCP ALT without being commanded to do so, VNAV captures our path and flies level at 3000’ to follow our flight plan altitude restrictions until that path begins to climb again. Once VNAV sees the path begin to climb, our pitch mode changes to VNAV SPD since this is the most efficient climb mode and commences the climb. We have our MCP ALT knob set to 6000, however- so the airplane will not allow itself to climb through this altitude unless we command it to do so. As such, our vertical mode changes to VNAV ALT to indicate that VNAV has leveled the airplane in order to comply with an altitude restriction that is not part of the Vertical Profile Path. If we had set our MCP ALT window to 21000, the airplane would have continued to climb all the way to altitude! Now lets try another example that demonstrates what happens when the airplane intersects your Vertical Profile Path before it reaches your MCP ALT: Note: Use the FLIGHTS, Select A Flight menu in MSFS to load the saved flight PMDG_744_TRC_Lesson_4_Part_2. For this exercise, I am going to demonstrate how easy it is to adjust restrictions “on the fly” in order to comply with ATC’s changing needs. Re-fly this departure with your MCP ALT window set to 3000. Takeoff, then engage the autopilot as you climb through 500’AGL. In order to help you see more clearly what is happening “behind the scenes,” hit bring up your FMC and display the LEGS page. You will note that the right side of the legs page shows /3000 in large font for both KBFI01 and KBFI02, indicating that we anticipate an altitude restriction of 3000’ while crossing these two fixes. In this current example, ATC has deleted our climb restriction and asked us to climb to 6000 straight away, and we have dialed 6000’ into our MCP ALT window. You will recall from the previous exercise however that VNAV is going to too the airplane to capture our flight path’s vertical profile in which case the airplane will go level at 3000 feet as previously demonstrated. So how do we tell the airplane to keep climbing? The process is pretty simple, but does require a little bit of familiarity with your flight plan! Watch the /3000 altitude restriction at the 1R LSK on your FMC display, then press the MCP ALT knob one time. Do you notice a change?



The altitude restriction was in large font, and it immediately changes to small font, indicating that the figure displayed there is a VNAV calculated crossing altitude, rather than a restriction. (i.e.: in the image below, VNAV is predicting that we will cross KBFI01 at 2950’)

So what happened? Pressing the MCP ALT knob instructed the FMC to cancel the altitude restriction at the next waypoint. As such, the /3000 altitude restriction that we entered for KBFI01 was cleared away and replaced with an altitude prediction from VNAV. With this altitude restriction canceled the airplane should continue climbing past 3000 in pursuit of our MCP ALT setting, right? Well…. Almost. (Hint: This is why I said you should be familiar with your flight plan!) Look at the altitude restriction for KBFI02: /3000 in large font. In other words- we still have an altitude restriction along our flight path that is between us and our desired altitude of 6000. ATC wants us to disregard this altitude restriction- so what do we do? Easy! Press the MCP ALT knob one more time. When you do this, the next successive altitude restriction will be cancelled in your flight plan.

If you had three more altitude restrictions that you needed to cancel, then just press the knob three more times, but be careful- you do not want to accidentally cancel restrictions beyond your currently desired altitude! Okay, now a short note for the truly accomplished 747-400 pilots: Did you notice that when the airplane leveled out at 6000’ MSL, your pitch mode changed to VNAV ALT? Do you know why? Of course! The VNAV computed Vertical Profile Path is now above you, on it’s way up to 21000 feet, and you are level at an altitude other than your profile path!



PART 5: Let’s Go Cruising!: Note: Use the FLIGHTS, Select A Flight menu in MSFS to load the saved flight PMDG_744_TRC_Lesson_4_Part_2. Now it is finally time to conduct a takeoff and climb to cruise altitude. Our ATC takeoff clearance contains our 3000’ climb restriction, just as before, and we are expected to “maintain runway heading” upon departure. For this takeoff, use the autopilot and auto throttle as we have been doing on our previous departures only this time, reach up and pus the HDG SEL button once you are above 500’ AGL. This will instruct the airplane to maintain the heading bug during your initial climb. Watch your pitch mode during the initial climb, and by now the pitch modes of VNAV SPD and VNAV PTH should be very familiar to you! Once level at 3000’, wait until you have passed the KBFI01 and then assume that ATC clears us to 6000’ so reach up and set 6000 into your MCP ALT window, and press the knob to cancel flight plan altitude restriction that we entered at KBFI02 and you will be on your VNAV SPD way to 6000. As you approach KBFI02, you should be level at 6000 (or close to level!) flying at 250 knots and on a heading of 131. After passing KBFI02, change your heading to 180 and set your MCP ALT to 18000. As you pass, 10,000, watch the speed bug on your airspeed tape. You will notice that once you are clear of the 250/10,000 speed restriction area, VNAV automatically resets your target airspeed to 322 knots and lowers the nose to accelerate the airplane. For demonstration purposes, reach up to your MCP and press the LNAV button. You will get an >FMC MESSAGE advisory, and the FMC scratch pad will tell you: NOT ON INTERCEPT HEADING. This is your indication that the airplane is on a heading that will not cross the intended flight path, so LNAV will refuse to operate. As you pass 15000, turn your heading knob left to 340. When established on the 340 heading, press LNAV again. This time, your Flight Mode Annunciator should look like this:

The LNAV that appears in white indicates that LNAV is armed to engage as you cross your intended flight path. Once your wings are level, set your MCP ALT knob to 21000 and press the knob to commence the climb. Once you are level at FL210, you will note that VNAV has left your speed bug at 322 knots, which is only .711M. Remember that you are still at relatively low altitude for a 747-400, and you are flying only a very short distance, so the FMS is attempting to get the best efficiency by not burning a significant amount of fuel to reach your top Mach speed only to then have to use the speed brakes to slow down In time for your descent. Remember, the bosses paying the fuel bill don’t like to see us wasting fossils! The speed selected by the FMS will depend on a number of factors, one of which is your COST INDEX. There are a few ways that you can manually adjust your cruise flight speed, however:



1. Press the SPD INTV button – this will open up the speed window and allow you to set a

higher/lower cruise speed. This will cause “ACT MCP SPD CRZ” to appear at the top of the VNAV CRZ page to indicate that you have overridden then VNAV calculated cruise speed.

2. Open the VNAV CRZ page on the CDU and type a new speed into the ECON SPD prompt at LSK 2L. This will cause “ACT (speed you entered) CRZ” to appear at the top of the page. To return to the FMC calculated economy speed, press the <ECON prompt at LSK 5L.

PART SIX: Get Down!: Once you are past NORMY, it is time to start thinking about your descent into Moses Lake. KMWH does not have any fancy arrival procedures so we are mostly left to our own devices to get the airplane properly established to fly an approach-to-landing at Moses Lake. Once you have some experience flying the 747-400, these thing will come naturally, but as you get used to the airplane, it is always useful to lean on a powerful crutch like VNAV to help ensure you don’t wind up with embarrassing overshoots and high speed approaches. First, bring up your FMC and press the DEP/ARR key. Most likely, since this is a short flight, you will be looking at the KBFI ARRIVALS page. This is because the FMC assumes that since you are still closer to your origin than you are to your destination, you may want to return to KBFI. We don’t- so press the <INDEX prompt, then select the KMWH ARR> prompt at the 2R LSK as seen below:

When you press the ARR> prompt for KMWH, you are going to be presented with a list of approach procedures for KMWH. We are going to want theILS32R, so select this approach and press the EXECute key to load this approach into your flight plan. (Note: I have included a legal copy of this approach plate for your use here.) If you pull out your copy of this approach, I want to walk you through a few highlights of our approach plan, so please pause the simulator in order to ensure that we don’t mess up your descent plan while you read this… Since KMWH has no fancy STARs to lead us gently into the final approach course for the ILS32, we are going to have to do things the hard way. This means we will need to “fly the whole approach” which includes the procedure turn into the ILS in order to reverse course.



This Type Rating Course Lesson is not going to cover the approach, but we DO want to cover the entire descent phase in VNAV, so we are going to treat this approach as if our intent was to fly the entire approach. This being the case, take a close look at the airport located in the middle of the approach plate. You will notice that there is a balloon with the identifier for the MOSES LAKE VOR located at the airport. North east of Moses Lake, you will notice the EPHRATA VOR, (EPH). From the EPH VOR there is an arrow extending to the S/SE that shows our outbound course to enter the ILS 32R approach is track outbound on the EPH 138 radial at 3,600 feet MSL. So for the purpose of our descent plan, we want to cross the EPH (EPHRATA) VOR at 3,600’ MSL. I am going to suggest that we plan to cross the VOR at 210 knots, just to give you a taste of how VNAV can help you plan your vertical and speed requirements during your descent. Now lets talk through what we expect to happen: We are currently level at FL210, sipping our coffee and looking forward to grabbing a burger at the airport restaurant at Moses Lake. ATC has been kind inform us “after EPH, plan for direct the full ILS 32R at Moses Lake.” Since we know that EPH is the last fix in our flight plan, it is easy to build out the rest of our approach using EPH as our descent target. (EPH at 3,600 and 210knots!) Bring up the LEGS page on your FMC, and the page should look something like this:

Take a close look at the altitude and speed requirements that are listed on the right side of the screen, and you will see that VNAV is currently planning for us to cross EPH at 240 knots and nearly 8000’ MSL! This would make entry into the approach extremely difficult, so lets start telling the FMS how WE want to fly the descent, shall we? First, close that route discontinuity. You can tell by examining your approach plate that after crossing EPH, we are going to head directly to the PELLY Outer Marker, so it is safe to eliminate this discontinuity to complete the flight planned route. (Down-select PELLY, then Up-Select PELLY to the 3L LSK where the discontinuity is currently located.)



When you execute the change, your FMC LEGS page will look similar to this:

Since your simulator is still paused, take a moment to gain some situational awareness. We know that we are going to adjust the speed/altitude constraints within our flight plan, but before we do lets take a look at what the airplane is currently expecting given it’s own VNAV calculations for the descent. The altitude predicted for crossing BLUIT intersection shows FL192. This tells us that the airplane is expecting to begin descent from our current FL210 cursing altitude before reaching BLUIT. Makes sense? If you look at your NAV display, you will notice that the FMS has placed your Top-Of-Descent marker on the flight path just before crossing BLUIT intersection:

From looking at my NAV display, it appears that I have about 28nm or so until the top-of-descent, but this is the descent that will leave us crossing EPH at 7600’ and 240 knots! So lets tell the FMC how we want to operate our descent: Type 210/3600 into the FMC scratch pad, and up-select to the 2R LSK on your LEGS page.



We have just instructed the FMS to plan the descent according to our requirement to cross EPH at 210/3400 MSL, and three things have happened in your flight plan that I would like you to notice.

1) Look at the altitude that VNAV is expecting to cross BLUIT: 14250 now rather than FL192.

2) Logically, this tells us that the Top-Of-Descent has been moved closer to our current position, and looking at the NAV display we see that this has indeed happened. T/D is now approximately 9nm in front of us.

3) VNAV has updated the speeds following for all fixes after EPH to reflect that we should have slowed to 210 knots crossing EPH. (Previously these speeds were all 240 knots!)

We are now properly set up for our descent plan, but I want to point out something for those that may try to fly this approach after the conclusion of our lesson today: After crossing EPH, you will NOT descend to 1711 as depicted by VNAV in your flight plan currently. The information you are seeing there is erroneous because VNAV is not currently anticipating the fact that you must over-fly PELLY at 3600 before descending to 2800 and commencing a procedure turn inbound on the approach. (remember: consult your approach chart to see how the approach is to be flown!) We’ll cover all of this in Type Rating Course Lesson 5, but I didn’t want to have half of you getting violated by the MSFS-FAA for busting approach minimums because you decided to skip ahead. ;-) Okay- go ahead and EXECute your updated flight plan, then un-pause the simulator. Early Descent: Almost immediately, you should receive an >FMC MESSAGE advisory, and the FMC scratch pad will contain the text: RESET MCP ALT. This is the airplane’s way of telling you that you can commence your descent using the VNAV “Early Descent” capability if so desired. When would you use Early Descent capability? Lets assume that ATC has told us, “Descend at pilots discretion and maintain 15000.” In this instance, we can set 15000 into the MCP window (no need to press the knob), and as the airplane nears the top-of-descent point, it will commence a very gentle departure from our cruise altitude and settle in at an initial descent rate of approximately 1250 fpm. Once the airplane intercepts the originally calculated descent path, the rate of descent will increase to maintain the descent path. We don’t need to use this feature, however. If desired we can simply wait until crossing top of descent before we dial in 15000 and press the altitude knob to tell the airplane, “descend now!” Keep in mind that use of the early descent feature must be with compliance from ATC. If ATC hasn’t started your descent by the time you reach the T/D marker, it’s probably time to start bugging them, or you will have lots of trouble getting down. So go ahead and dial 15000 into the MCP window. The airplane will commence the descent on it’s own. (Depending on where you are, you may get the early descent, or the airplane may simply wait until you are crossing T/D, but either situation is fine.) Starting Down: The most economical descent for any turbojet airplane is an idle power descent. At idle power the airplane burns the least amount of fuel and gains the most advantage from altitude and existing airspeed in the descent. For this reason, as you enter your descent you should see the throttles move to idle power and IDLE displayed on the PFD FMA for your thrust mode. (HOLD will replace this annunciation after a few moments.)



You will also notice that VNAV places a pseudo glide slope up on your NAV display to help you maintain vertical descent profile situational awareness. This pseudo glide slope is called a Path Deviation Indicator, or PDI.

Pay close attention to the pseudo glide slope indication. If it is centered then the airplane is remaining on your flight plan’s projected vertical path. (And you should continue to see VNAV PTH as your pitch mode, incidentally! Isn’t that nice how those work?) Let the airplane continue it’s descent until it levels out at 15000 feet. (don’t’ forget to reset your altimeter when descending through FL180!) Wait about 10 seconds, then pause the simulator. You will notice two things that are related- and fit easily into your new VNAV knowledge base. Here is a picture to help you:

Notice that your PDI on the navigation display shows that your calculated path for the descent is starting beneath you. (i.e.: Just like a glide-slope, you are now high instead of being ON your descent path as in the previous picture.) If you look at the PFD in this image you will notice that



the airplane is level at 15000 and VNAV ALT is displayed as your pitch mode. This all makes sense since our MCP ALT window has 15000 dialed in, yes? Of course it does! The airplane leveled out at the MCP ALT because it will not pass through without being commended to do so! Un-pause the simulator, and set your MCP ALT to 3600 so that the airplane can continue on the descent. It will take a few moments for the engines to reach idle power once again, and during this time you are going to continue departing from your optimal vertical descent path. Since your PDI is already at it’s bottom-most limit, the system gives you another piece of information to help you keep track of whether your deviation from the vertical path is getting better, or worse. This piece of information is a “deviation total” displayed in white digits adjacent to the PDI, and measures your vertical deviation from the planned descent path in feet.

As your descent continues, if this number is getting smaller than you are catching up to your planned descent profile, which is good. If this number continues to grow, then clearly more pilot input is going to be needed in order to get you back on path! For now, just watch the PDI and see how your deviation total is continually updated. Do you notice that you really aren’t getting any closer to your planned descent path? If you think about it, this makes sense since VNAV calculated your original descent path based upon an IDLE POWER DESCENT. You interrupted that descent for a few moments, then returned to an idle power descent. So in a clean aerodynamic configuration, you cannot get the airplane to descend any more rapidly without adding drag! Slow Down between Donuts!: as you descent toward 10,000’ MSL, (the 250 knot ceiling in the US) you will notice two green circles appear along your flight path on the navigation display. At PMDG we nicknamed these the “deceleration donuts” because they show you the beginning and end of the period where the airplane will be decelerating to your lower altitude speed limit. (250 knots in the US.)



If you let the airplane continue to manage the descent, you will notice that you reach the first deceleration donut as you descend to 1,000’ above the ceiling for the 250 knot restriction. Once inside the 1000’ deceleration buffer, the airplane reduces the rate of descent to 500 fpm and adjusts the airspeed bug to 250 knots. Once 250 knots is achieved, pitch is adjusted again to recommence the descent. Now isn’t this handy? Clearly when operating in VNAV, the FMC becomes a very useful took for ensuring your compliance with assigned speeds and various other speed restrictions. Use this capability to your best advantage as it allows you to concentrate on monitoring the descent and ensuring that you are properly prepared for the approach ahead! Continuing our descent, you will notice that as we descent through 6600’, the speed bug moves down to 232 knots. We have selected 210 knots as our “target” airspeed for crossing EPH, but if you look closely at the PFD speed tape, you will notice that 210 knots is lower than the clean maneuvering speed depicted by the –UP indication on the speed tape.

Remember that I mentioned that VNAV’s speed protection logic will not allow you to underspeed the airplane? This is a perfect example. To slow the airplane further, simply move the flap selector to 1, then 5 degrees. VNAV will adjust the speed to 210 knots and manipulate the aircraft pitch to until the correct speed has been reached. Once at 210 knots, the airplane continue it’s idle power descent until reaching our planned End-Of-Descent altitude at 3600 feet. Even though we intentionally put the airplane slightly behind the descent path, you will notice that we cross EPH and turn toward PELLY at 210 knots and 3600’ MSL, so we are RIGHT ON TARGET! PART SEVEN: When The Plan Falls Through: When a Plan Falls Through, But Not Rapidly Enough: As we’ve just demonstrated, the key to a successful descent comes from thinking through and entering good speed and altitude restrictions into your flight plan. VNAV makes this mostly easy, but you still must have some understanding of what your airplane is capable of. If poor planning, ATC mix-ups or just plan pilot error puts you and the airplane into a position from which the airplane can’t save face for you, you must know what to expect- and how to fix the problem! So lets go back to our top of descent and instead of starting our descent “on cue” we are going to pretend for a moment that ATC has left us high and we could not start our descent from FL210. As the airplane passes the top of descent, you will notice your PDI showing the path deviation indicator dropping downward, indicating that you are deviating further and further above the calculated path. Additionally you will notice (yeah!) VNAV ALT displayed on the PFD since the airplane is maintaining your MCP altitude even though it knows the path for descent is descending below the airplane. When your PDI shows 1200 feet of total path deviation, reach up and select 3600 in your MCP ALT window. You will need to press the knob, since the airplane has already deviated from it’s assigned path, and this will instruct the autopilot to close the throttles and commence and idle power descent toward 3600 MSL.



Once the airplane is established in the descent, you should notice that you are approximately 2000 feet high on your descent path. This number will remain mostly constant throughout the descent, until we decide to intervene. The best way to get the airplane back onto path if you have deviated above the descent path is to deploy the flight spoilers. Pull the spoiler handle to the flight detent and watch what happens to your vertical path deviation. In brief: the added drag from the spoilers causes the airplane to pitch down in order to maintain your airspeed, resulting in a greater rate of descent than you can achieve at idle power with the spoilers retracted. In a matter of minutes, your PDI should begin to center, and you are back in business with your previously planned descent! When The Plan Falls Through, Too Fast!: Although none of us like to admit it, eventually you are going to find yourself both high AND fast. Nothing can do more damage to your carefully pruned sense of aeronautical pride than finding yourself well above the descent path with too much airspeed. Airliners can do many things, but for the most part they do not like to “go down and slow down” at the same time. You should understand that there is a popular misconception in the sim community that VNAV will not allow the airplane to accelerate above the speed shown by the speed bug during a descent. This is not true- and in some situations if you are not careful you can cause yourself quite a bit of frustration during high speed descents under VNAV. First, understand that VNAV wants to manage a descent at M.80/300 knots on the descent calculations are predicated on correct descent path airspeeds during the descent. When building your flight plan constraints, you can manipulate the speeds to be used when building the path, and if done correctly VNAV will accept virtually any airspeed for the descent path. In some instances however it is possible to put the airplane into a descent during which it cannot maintain the planned speed for the descent. Shallow Descent: If this is the result of a shallow descent path causing the airplane to slow down, the auto throttle will provide some supplemental thrust to keep speed during the descent. Steep Descent: If the descent path is so steep that the airplane is unable to keep from accelerating, the use of the flight spoilers for speed control is recommended. You should note that VNAV will allow the airplane to accelerate above the target speed while attempting to maintain the descent path (and remain in VNAV PTH pitch mode.) If the airplane accelerates 10 knots above the target speed for the descent path, an >FMC MESSAGE advisory will display and the FMC will show DRAG REQUIRED on the scratch pad. If the DRAG REQUIRED message is ignored, VNAV will allow the airplane to continue accelerating right up to the structural operating limits of the airplane. The airplane will not be allowed to accelerate beyond this limit speed, however (varies by altitude… you can see the limit speed where the red overspeed bricks appear on the speed tape!) In order to prevent a structural overspeed, the FMC will abandon the descent path, and instead revert to VNAV SPD mode in order to command aircraft pitch to maintain a speed just below the structural limit of the airplane. So, as a rule of thumb, a shallow flight path will cause the auto throttle to add a small amount of thrust in order to maintain speed, and a steep flight path may require you to deploy the flight spoilers in order to maintain your descent path.



Pay close attention to what the airplane is telling you, and you should have no problems arriving over your End-of-Descent target on altitude and on speed! PART EIGHT: Piecing it All Together!: What follows is an exercise designed to showcase the true-to-life simulation value of the PMDG 747-400/400F LNAV/VNAV model. We are going to fly a very short flight from KPHX to KLAX using a departure procedure from KPHX, followed by a short time at cruise altitude and an arrival procedure into KLAX. The arrival procedure that we will use for KLAX is easily one of the most complicated arrival procedures available in the navigation database and requires truly powerful VNAV capabilities to make it’s navigation simple and efficient. Note: Use the FLIGHTS, Select A Flight menu in MSFS to load the saved flight PMDG_744_TRC_Lesson_4_Part_4. The airplane is fully configured for takeoff in this scenario. Your initial climb instructions require you to comply with the runway 26 departure procedure instructions which can be found on the BUCKEYE TWO DEPARTURE description page attached to the end of this lesson. For simplicity, your instructions for the departure are as follows: TAKE-OFF RUNWAY 25L/25R/26: Climb via 258 heading to 1550 then climbing left turn heading 250 heading, at 13DME west of PXR VORTAX, climbing right turn heading 280 to the BXK R-077 to BXK VORTAC. Maintain 7000, expect further clearance to filed altitude 3 minutes after departure. Flying this turning procedure might seem a bit complicated, but you have plenty of tools to help you simplify this departure dramatically. Once again, we are lazy pilots, so lets make the computers and automation do the work so that we can keep as much of our minds focused on flight safety and operation as possible! Bring up the FIX page on your FMC, and lets do a bit of manual data plugging to make our lives easy. Once you have the FIX page displayed, lets step through our departure procedure one piece at a time. Initially we will be climbing on the runway heading until we reach 1550’ MSL, which is easy enough. Then we will turn to a 250 heading until we reach 13 DME from the PXR VORTAC. So how do we know when we are 13nm from PXR? Type PXR into the scratch pad, and upload to the 1L LSK to fill the FIX prompt on the FIX page. Your FIX page should now look like this:



Since we are interested in the 13nm arc around the PXR VORTAC, type /13 into the scratch pad and up-select to the 2L LSK under RAD/DIS. You will now see a green circle draw around the PXR VORTAC on your navigation display, and the circle’s diameter is (surprise!) 13nm!

This makes it very easy to identify when we are 13nm from the PXR VORTAC, wouldn’t you agree? Continuing to read our departure procedure, we will turn to right to 280 heading until intercepting the 077 radial of the BXK (BUCKEYE) VORTAC. To simplify our navigation, we can use the go to the second FIX page (use the PAGE DOWN key on your FMC) and have the system draw this radial on your navigation display as well. To draw the 077 radial of BXK, up-select BXK to the 1L LSK of the second FIX page, then up-select 077/ to the 2L LSK . The result will look something like this:

If you switch your NAV display to PLAN mode, you will notice that we are going to have an easy time identifying our turn points and our intercept radial 077 to track toward the BXK VOR. Most



professional airline crews will be very content to manually fly the departure procedure using HDG SEL as their roll mode and VNAV as the pitch mode, but since we are a VERY professional airline crew, I’m going to teach you how to take laziness to the highest possible level for this departure procedure: Take a close look at the charted BUCKEYE TWO DEPARTURE procedure that I have provided with this Lesson. You will notice that after making our turn to 280, we are going to intercept the 077 radial of BXK and track this radial until crossing the VORTAC during our climb. Currently, we have the procedure set up so that we will be required to manually slew the heading bug to comply with our departure headings, and then continue to use the heading to help us track the 077 radial of BXK until we have safely crossed BXK where we can engage LNAV and allow the autopilot to track the departure. This sounds like an awful lot of work to this coffee-addicted airline pilot, so I’m going to propose that we set up the FMC with a home-built waypoint that allows the airplane to track the 077 radial under LNAV, thus simplifying our lives a bit. How do we do this? Just a little ingenuity…. Follow me! Pull up the LEGS page on your FMC. (Leave all the work we’ve already done intact! We need it!) Notice that our first fix is BXK, and our distance to that fix is 42NM? Why not place a manual waypoint along the 077 radial of BXK someplace east of where we’d expect to intercept the 077 radial? We know that this pseudo waypoint would be closer to BXK than 42nm, and it would certainly make our departure easy, so lets estimate where we want that fix to be located by looking at our FIX page once again:

Notice that after ETA, the FIX page is showing us DTG (Distance to Go)? So we know that the 13DME arc is 12nm from our current position, which means that: (42nm to BXK) – (12nm to our arc) = 30nm. So lets make a pseudo waypoint that is 30nm from BXK and located on the 077 radial! Then, as we are on our 280 heading we can arm LNAV and let it intercept and track the radial for us! So bring up your LEGS page, and enter the following into the scratch pad:

Up-select this to the 1L LSK, and you will have created this waypoint. You will be presented with a route discontinuity, which you should close (down-select BXK then up-select to the 2L LSK.) Your route is now ready to fly and it appears on your navigation display as follows:



(I have zoomed the navigation display out slightly to make it easier to see…. But it looks remarkably like our charted departure procedure, and will make our lives very easy!) Now, lets take a look at your legs page, and compare this to what we expect to happen during the departure:

If we review the text of our departure procedure, you will notice that ATC only wants us to climb to 7000’ MSL, and that we should expect to be cleared to a higher altitude 3 minutes after departure. So should we set an altitude limit at BXK01 (our pseudo-waypoint) or at BXK to limit our climb to 7000? What do you think? Of course not! Since we have our MCP ALT window set to 7000, the airplane will level off at 7000 and enter VNAV ALT, right? So we know that the airplane will naturally limit our climb until we set that window to a higher value. Therefore, we should leave it set as is…. One note here, reach up right now, and ARM VNAV on the MCP. Should you arm LNAV? No…. We are going to be using the heading bug to fly those turns, so leave LNAV alone until later! Are you ready to go? Okay- re-read your departure procedure, then taxi out onto the runway, and lets get going!



Once you have the gear up, maintain your current heading and monitor your altitude. Passing through 1550’ MSL, push the HDG SEL button and use the knob to set your heading to 240 as described in our departure procedure. At this light weight, you will find that we reach 7000’ MSL just prior to reaching the 13nm ring we set up on our navigation display. Your navigation display will look like this:

As you cross the 13nm ring, rotate your heading knob to 280 degrees, and when the airplane is established on the 280 heading, press the LNAV button to arm LNAV to intercept the course we programmed!

Now, we simply need to monitor the airplane to ensure that it conducts the turn as we’d anticipate, and wait for ATC to tell us that we can climb! As LNAV changes to the active roll mode, the airplane will turn to intercept the 077 radial and track it toward the BXK VORTAC. Reach up and set your altitude selector to FL340 and press the ALT knob to commence your climb.



Notice all of the usual VNAV indications taking place during this departure? When we are making our initial climb, VNAV SPD is displayed. When we level at our MCP ALT setting of 7000’ MSL, VNAV ALT is displayed. Now that we are again climbing to our cruising altitude, VNAV SPD is displayed and throughout the entire process VNAV has managed our speed bug for us to ensure that we don’t go too fast or too slow for our given flight circumstances. Wasn’t that easy? As you pass through 10,000’ MSL, VNAV will command a 320 knot climb. Don’t forget to press the STD button on your EFIS Controls when passing through 18000. In a matter of moments we should find ourselves leveling out at FL340 in the proximity of MESSI waypoint. This is a short flight, so just as soon as we are level, it’s time to start thinking about getting down! PART NINE: Prepping for a Stress Test!: As I mentioned earlier, we are going to be flying the PDZ4 arrival into KLAX. The PDZ4 arrival procedure is a complicated arrival that is designed to keep arriving aircraft within a very narrow altitude band in order to facilitate the busy LAX airspace, but this arrival also recognizes that the wide variety of aircraft arriving in the LA basin have a broad range of energy management requirements. As such, most of the altitude restrictions along this arrival procedures are defined as “cross at-or-above” or “cross at-or-below.” In other words, the altitude assignments for these fixes are not HARD altitudes- and instead there is a window through which the airplane is allowed to fly. This arrival procedure is very hard on VNAV simulations, and as such this arrival makes a very good demonstration of the computational power and completeness of the PMDG 747-400/400F VNAV model and how it can make a difficult task simple for the flight crew that plans ahead! NOTE: Pause your simulator here to give yourself more time! So lets get started by reviewing your PDZ4 arrival chart, starting at the TWENTYNINE PALMS VORTAC and ending at runway 25L at KLAX. For each subsequent fix along the arrival, pay close attention to the altitude restrictions that are charted. The first fix that has a defined altitude restriction is the KONZL waypoint, and we are expected to cross KONZL “AT” 17000’ MSL. After KONZL, we begin to see the soft waypoints for each subsequent waypoint. TRTLE: “At/Below 17000” but “At/Above 16000” A mere 6nm later we see: RIFFT: “At or above 14000” There is no crossing altitude for PARADISE VOR, but the next waypoint: TEJAY: “at or above 12,000” ARNES: “At or Below 11000” but “At/Above 10000”



It would be simply to just put hard altitude constraints at each of these fixes in order to force the airplane to cross each subsequent fix at a specific altitude, but this would be unrealistic, as crews flying modern airliners will use soft constraints to their advantage in order to gain as much efficiency as possible during a descent as complicated as the PDZ4. So keep your PDZ4 chart nearby, and pull up the FMC LEGS page, then use the PAGE DOWN key until you see TNP (TWENTYNIN PALMS). Your screen should look like this:

You can see that we are rapidly approaching the TNP fix in our flight plan and you can see that our Top-of-Descent will take place somewhere between TNP and PAUMA. The FMS has planned a 302 knot descent and you can see how our descent progresses through the next few fixes. Since we are responsible pilots, lets step through the arrival procedure chart and ensure that the procedure that has been loaded in our flight plan matches the published chart. We can see from the chart that there are no speed/altitude restrictions for TNP, PAUMA or ARRVD. KONZL, however, as we have already noted, has a notation on the chart that we should expect to cross this fix AT 17000. Looking at our FMC LEGS page, we can see that the altitude appears in small font, meaning that it is simply a calculated altitude rather than a restriction. To fix this, upload the following to the 4R LSK in order to set the KONZL altitude as a hard 17000’ MSL crossing altitude:

When done, hit the EXECute key to confirm this change to our flight plan. You will also notice that the altitudes at which VNAV expects us to cross PAUMA and ARRVD has dropped slightly, indicating that we will be starting our descent just a little earlier in order to reach KONZL at 17000 as required. If you use the PAGE DOWN key to step through the remainder of the arrival, you will notice that all of the required altitude restrictions are already set, so the procedure is ready to fly. You will also notice that when the airplane expects us to transition below 10000’ MSL, VNAV plans to slow the airplane to 240 knots to comply with the low altitude speed restrictions.



On page 3/5 you will notice a ROUTE DISCONTINUITY that you should close, since we know that we will land on RWY 25L at KLAX. (Down-Select HUNDA and Up-Select to the boxes that make up the discontinuity.) Now, lets do some high-level automation setup (read: Pilot Laziness) to assist us with the transition between the approach and the runway: Press your INIT REF key and select your landing flaps setting. (In this case, use Flaps 30) We know from this page that our final approach speed will be approximately 147 knots. Select this flap setting, then return to the LEGS page. Pull out your KLAX ILS 25L approach plate, and look at the profile view down near the bottom. You will notice that each of the fixes along the ILS 25L have underlined altitudes, indicating that ATC requires that you cross each successive fix NO LOWER THAN the number depicted. (example: 3500 at HUNDA means that you should cross HUNDA no lower than 3500’ MSL) You will notice that there appears to be a discrepancy between the PDZ4 arrival procedure altitude for FUELR (At/Above 8000) and the ILS 25L (No Lower Than 7000). This discrepancy can safely be ignored, since the 7000 figure is for use by aircraft flying this procedure without having flown the PDZ4, so we will continue to respect the PDZ4 arrival altitudes. You will also notice that the altitudes depicted for LIMMA and HUNDA on the approach need to be modified in your flight plan to include the altitude restrictions included on the approach procedure. To bring the HUNDA and LIMMA altitude restrictions into compliance with the ILS 25L approach plate, enter the altitudes with an “A” attached: 3500A for “At/Above 3500” and 1900A for “At/Above 1900” Go ahead and make the changes (you know how! Go ahead! Do it!) and when you are done, your FMC LEGS page should look like this:

At this point, lets give some consideration to the speeds displayed on our flight plan. We already know that the FMC will slow us to 240 knots by the time we descend below 10000’ MSL, but you will notice that VNAV currently plans to leave us at 240 knots all the way to touchdown. The brakes on the 747-400 are good…. But our airline probably wouldn’t be too pleased to learn that we touched down at 240 knots, so lets take a look at our approach and make some decisions about how we want VNAV to manage the speed of our airplane during the approach. A quick look at the ILS 25L approach plate shows us that we expect to cross the final approach fix at LIMMA. In keeping with good practices, we want to be fully configured for landing and at



our final approach speed when we reach the final approach fix, so let’s plan to cross LIMMA at FLAPS 30 and 147 knots. You cannot enter a speed for the final approach fix, so we will work backward from the arrival procedure in order to set ourselves up to make the speed transition naturally. I recommend setting 210 knots as the speed for FUELR and 180 knots for HUNDA. You can make these speed entries by typing the desired speed followed by a slash:

When finished, press the EXECute key to confirm all of our changes. Your final approach should look like this:

This is essentially all that is required. We have told the FMS the limitations that are required for our LNAV/VNAV descent along the PDZ4 arrival to KLAX. We’ll transition to an ILS, slow the airplane even further, and land. Easy! Okay, un-pause your simulator, and lets monitor our arrival! PART TEN: Descend to Paradise: As you already know, we should never change altitudes without the approval of ATC. So you might be wondering how it is that we can make this entire descent along the PDZ4 arrival given that we would likely talk to a few different approach controllers and have plenty of other aircraft in the same airspace. When using an arrival procedure like this one, controllers will issuer you a clearance that instructs you to use the altitude definitions on your PDZ4 arrival. This instructions uses a very specific phrase: “descend via.” In our case, the controller will tell us to “descend via the Paradise Four Arrival. Descend and Maintain 8000.”



This instruction matches our PDZ4 expectations, because we know that our altitude will be approximately 8000 MSL at FUELR, the final fix on our arrival. As such when approaching Top-of-Descent, we simply reach up and set 8000 into the MCP ALT window. IMPORTANT NOTE: Should you push the knob? Or not? If you have set your descent altitude prior to reaching T/D, there is no reason to push the knob. If you have waited until after T/D, then you should press the knob to instruct the airplane to start down the descent path. As you approach the Top-of-Descent, remember that you will see the green T/D circle approaching on your flight path. In anticipation of the need to slow to 302 knots for the descent, the auto throttle will slow the airplane in level flight. When the airplane reaches T/D, if you have already set 8000 into the MCP ALT window, the airplane will remain in VNAT PTH, and commence an idle power descent. Your VNAV PDI will appear on the NAV display as a backup to help you keep track of your relationship to the planned descent path. Not long after you start descending, you will notice that the airplane is descending around 2700 fpm, and it may lose a knot or two or five in airspeed. This is normal. Remember, if the descent path is shallow, the auto throttle will add power but if the descent is too steep you will need spoilers. Watch these things closely! You will find that the first few minutes on this arrival are rather routine. The airplane continues descending at idle power in VNAV PTH pitch mode. Why VNAV PTH? The airplane has calculated a descent path that will comply with all of the restrictions we have placed on it for altitude and speed performance. As long as the airplane is able to maintain this path, it will remain in VNAV PTH pitch mode. Don’t forget to set your altimeter setting as you descend through 18000! The first real important gate to ensure that we make is the 17000’ MSL hard altitude crossing at KONZL. You will find that the airplane crosses KONZL easily at 17000 at 302 knots, just as we instructed via the FMC. As we pass KONZLE, however, watch your rate of descent and your auto throttle! The next task along the PDZ is to cross TRTLE below 17000 and above 16000. Our rate of descent prior to KONZL was around 2300 fpm. As we pass KONZL however, the auto throttle changes from HOLD to SPD and adds power to help shallow our rate of descent so that we can descend at 1100 fpm in order to fly through this narrow altitude gate passing over TRTLE. (Pretty cool, huh? Just wait! It’s gets better!) Note: Hit the pause key here so that I can walk you through a mental exercise to help you appreciate what the airplane is going to do next! After passing TRTLE, the next fix is RIFFT. At RIFFT, we are simply instructed to cross At/Above 14000 MSL. This should be simple enough, especially since RIFFT is only 6nm away from TRTLE and we are traveling 5nm/minute! (300 knots/60 mph = 5nm/minute). You can expect the airplane to follow a descent path that approaches 2000 fpm in order to take advantage of the opportunity to descend. If you look at the successive fixes, PDZ has no altitude requirements and TEJAY instructs us to cross At/Above 12000’ MSL. TEJAY is 18nm (3 minutes and 36 seconds) away, so you can bet



that the rate of descent will shallow somewhat after passing RIFFT. This will cause your auto throttle to add power, but this is normal as the airplane works to maintain the descent path as calculated. If you keep looking ahead, you will notice that we need to be below 11000 after crossing TEJAY, so VNAV will need to keep an eye on that altitude restriction as well to ensure we are below the 11000 and above the 10000 as described. The wonder of computers is that VNAV will do just that, and even if we are distracted by looking for crossing traffic or some other cockpit task, the airplane will make those crossing restrictions because we have programmed it to do so! Note: Un-pause your simulator and continue! Going Slower in LA Traffic: As you round the corner at PDZ, you will notice the “deceleration donut” that I mentioned earlier in this lesson. It will appear on your NAV display in approximately the same location as in the image below:

Notice that I am just completing the turn after PDZ, the VNAV PDI is centered and at this point we are descending at 900fpm at 302 knots (not pictured here obviously.) Thus far VNAV has done a wonderful job of navigating the hazards of this procedure, making it look marvelously easy. When we reach that “deceleration donut” we can expect the airspeed bug to drop to 240 knots, the throttles to reach idle, and the rate of descent to shallow as the airplane slows as required to descend below 10000’ MSL. In order to facilitate this process, we could pop the flight spoilers in order to help the airplane slow down, but even without our assistance VNAV will maneuver the airplane so as to allow itself the most opportunity to shed speed. This may include (as in this case) dropping the nose to increase the rate of descent in order to have more time to operate in a shallow descent while slowing to 240 knots. You may receive a DRAG REQUIRED message if the airplane needs some assistance slowing before ARNES, depending on a number of factors including temperature, wind and aircraft weight. You should not need to spend more than a few seconds with the spoilers deployed to help the airplane slow, and you should certainly NEVER find yourself dragging along through miles and miles of atmosphere with all those barn doors hanging open in order to help the airplane slow down. Since the speed restriction below 10000 is regulatory in nature, VNAV will not simply rocket through this barrier if it is having trouble shedding speed. After giving you a DRAG REQUIRED warning, you may notice the airplane switch to VNAV SPD and allowing itself to float above the planned descent path in order to get rid of a few knots of speed. Once the correct speed has been attained the airplane will attempt to regain the descent path, where it will return to VNAV PTH. This should happen without any intervention from you at most flight weights.



Just remember that at extremely heavy weights you will want to pay close attention to your speed here and use the spoilers gently to help out if needed! Crossing ARNES, the airplane will turn toward SUZZI, where VNAV will cross the fix at or above 9000 MSL as depicted on our chart. Shortly after SUZZI, we’ll start slowing to cross FUELR at/above 8000 MSL and 210 knots. Once you have attained 240 knots, I recommend selecting FLAPS 1, then flaps 5 in order to give VNAV enough room to set your speed to 210 knots as we have asked.

Before you cross FUELR, LAX approach would clear you for lower altitudes, so go ahead and set your MCP ALT window to 3000 MSL. This will allow the airplane to commence the descent as planned while you wait for the ILS localizer and glide slope signals to come alive. Within moments of crossing FUELR, you should see the LOC, followed closely by the glide-slope. Your PFD will look like this:

You are slowing on the approach, descending in perfect harmony with the ILS (even though you have not yet selected APP mode on the MCP) and you have 20.5nm to arm the approach, slow the airplane, lower the gear, conduct your landing checklist. All that remains after that is to set the airplane down gently at KLAX on 25L. Now is this a great way to make a living, or what?



PART ELEVEN: Post Landing Review: So lets review a few details about this flight to ensure you understand just how LNAV/VNAV can simplify your life:

1) You can make waypoints to facilitate your navigation, even if they do not exist in the database.

2) You can use VNAV to manage complicated descent/energy management problems in order to free you up to keep your eye on the big picture of your flight. (Energy management is the key to success flying airliners! If your airplane can’t do it for you, then your task level goes up just when you want to be able to devote as much attention as you can to the “big picture.”

3) Planning ahead and reviewing your descent will allow you to put restrictions into your flight plan that ensures the airplane will behave as you expect during the descent and approach.

4) Spending some time looking over the transition between your arrival procedure and your runway approach procedure can help you keep things in perspective and will allow you to use LNAV/VNAV energy management and speed protections to your advantage.

This has been a long Type Rating Course! I hope you enjoyed the lessons, and I hope you have gained some insight to help you use VNAV to your advantage in your online and offline simming. All of us at PMDG hope you have enjoyed flying the “VNAV Stress Test” approach to KLAX, as we feel that this approach is one of the more complex VNAV approaches flown by modern airliners, and as such it showcases how the fidelity of our PMDG 747-400/400F simulation! Up next for PMDG 747-400/400F Type Rating Course 5: We fly some approaches! Here Endeth the Lesson! Captain Robert S. Randazzo PMDG *I’d like to thank PMDG’s Ryan Maziarz for his assistance in writing portions of this Type Rating Course, and for convincing me that adding 12 pages to include the PDZ4 arrival would be of great benefit to all PMDG pilots! Thanks, Ryan!

EPHRATA

234^

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112.6 EPH

Chan 73

12

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276 (300- )

1680-1 495 (500-1 )

1740-2555 (600-2)

CIRCLING

MALSR

GND CON UNICOM

121.9 122.95

APP CRS

13503 1164 1185

Rwy Idg

TDZE

Apt Elev

119.05

ATIS

CATEGORY A B C D

GRANT COUNTY TOWER

(CTAF)126.4 385.5

GRANT COUNTY APP CON

118.25 128.0 257.8

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2534

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LOM/IAF

324^

144^

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MS A M W 2 5 N M

4000 3300

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TDZE1164

324^ 4.7 NM

from FAF

1801501209060Knots

Min:Sec

FAF to MAP 4.7 NM

4:42 3:08 2:21 1:53 1:34

HIRL Rwy 14L-32R

MIRL Rwys 4-22, 14R-32L, and 18-36

089^

3400085^

4200

(26.6)(11.8)

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1357

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276 (300- )

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S-ILS 32R 1364/24 200 (200- ) 12

2742

GS 3.00^

TCH 56

MOSES LAKE

115.0 MWHMHW

Chan 97

MOSES LAKE, WASHINGTON AL-961 (FAA)

ILS RWY 32RGRANT COUNTY INTLMOSES LAKE/ (MWH)

ILS RWY 32R(MWH)GRANT COUNTY INTLMOSES LAKE/

47^ 12’N - 119^ 19’W

MOSES LAKE, WASHINGTON

Amdt 19B 06075

MISSED APPROACH: Cl imb to 1800, then c l imbing

r ight turn to 4000 v ia MWH R-054 to BATUM

Int /MWH 9.8 DME and hold.

4000

MWH R-054

BATUM

For inoperat ive MALSR increase S-LOC 32R

Category D RVR to 5000.*

2346

3400

145^ (6)

R-096

3700203^

(11.6)

099^

279^ELEV 1185

*

REIL Rwys 4,14L and 22

MWH 9.8

LOCALIZER 109.5

1680-1 495 (500-1)

1281

1299

1301

H

18

36

22

4

P

P

V3

V

10000 X 100

0 .3% UP

0 .4%

DOWN

13503 X 200

3 307 X 75

2937 X 75

A 5

9

27

3500 X 90

14L

32R

32L

14R

H

NW

-1, 08 JUN

2006 to 06 JUL 2006

NW

-1, 0

8 JU

N 2

006

to 0

6 JU

L 20

06

280

PHOENIX

115.6 PXR

Chan 103

N33 25.98’- W111

58.21’

R -077

BUCKEYE

110.6 BXK

Chan 43

N33 27.21’-W112

49.48’

BLYTHE

117.4 BLH

Chan 121

N33 35.76’-W114

45.67’

N34 06.12’-W114

40.93’

N34 37.88’-W118

03.83’

N33 52.20’-W116

25.79’

PARKER

PALMDALE

PALM SPRINGS

115.5 PSP114.5 P

MD

Chan 92117.9 P

KE

Chan 126

44

54

257V16

DECASN33 49.4

1’

W115 27.40’

N33 46.38’

W114 32.64’

NOTE: DME and R

ADAR required.

NOTE: Chart not t

o scale.

L-3, H-4

L-3, H-4

P M DP K E

B X K

P S PB L H

NOTE: Turbojets l

anding LAX, file PA

RKER TRANSITION

.

N

13

R -095

R-097

279

(101)

J4269

262

(88)

(98)

R-080

6000

26000

J212

R-080260 (46)

260 (49)R -278

37

V16

J212(138)278

J65

L-3, H-4

Chan 102

L-3, H-4

TAKE-OFF MINIMU

MS

4

100

240

1550

1550

080 075

070

1550 1550

P X R

NOTE: Aircraft req

uesting FL 220 an

d below must file BL

YTHE TRANSITION

.

NOTE: Aircraft lan

ding other than LA

X and turboprops l

anding at LAX:

requesting

FL240 and above,

file PALMDALE or

PALM SPRINGS TR

ANSITION.

Rwy 7L/7R/8: Stan

dard with minimum

climb of 300’ per N

M to 7000.

Rwy 25L/25R/26: S

tandard with minim

umclimb of 3

50’ per NM to 7000

.

(NARRATIVE ON F

OLLOWING PAGE)

PHOENIX, ARIZONA

(PHX)PHOENIX SKY HARBOR INTLSL-322 (FAA)06103

BUCKEYE TWO DEPARTURE

(BXK2.BXK)

PHOENIX, ARIZONA

(PHX)PHOENIX SKY HARBOR INTL06103

BUCKEYE TWO DEPARTURE(BXK2.BXK)

ATIS 127.575

CLNC DEL

124.1 269.2

GND CON

119.75 (NORTH) 132.55 (S

OUTH)

PHOENIX TOWER

118.7 385.4 (Rwy

8-26)

120.9 254.3 (Rwy

s 7L-25R, 7R-25L)

PHOENIX DEP CO

N

126.8 269.6

CURIV

078 078

NOTE: BUCKEYE D

EPARTURE restrict

ed to turbojet and t

urboprop aircraft o

nly.

(NOTES CONTINUE

D ON FOLLOWING

PAGE)

258 258258

R-032

078

18000

SW

-4, 08 JUN

2006 to 06 JUL 2006

SW

-4, 0

8 JU

N 2

006

to 0

6 JU

L 20

06

PHOENIX, ARIZONA

PHOENIX, ARIZONA

(PHX)

(PHX)

PHOENIX SKY HARBOR INTL

PHOENIX SKY HARBOR INTL

SL-322 (FAA)04330

04330

DEPARTURE ROUTE DESCRIPTION

T



(BXK2.BXK)

(BXK2.BXK)

BLYTHE TRANSITION (BXK2.BLH): From over BXK VORTAC via BXK R-262 and BLH R-080

to BLH VORTAC.

PALMDALE TRANSITION (BXK2.PMD): From over BXK VORTAC via BXK R-269 and PSP

R-080 to DECAS INT, then via BLH R-278 and PMD R-095 to PMD VORTAC.

PALM SPRINGS TRANSITION (BXK2.PSP): From over BXK VORTAC via BXK R-269 and

PSP R-080 to PSP VORTAC.

PARKER TRANSITION (BXK2.PKE): From over BXK VORTAC via BXK R-279 and PKE R-097

to PKE VORTAC.

TAKEOFF NOTES CONT.

NOTE:

NOTE:

NOTE:

NOTE:

NOTE:

Rwy 7R, rod 716’ from departure end of runway, 184’ right of centerline, 87’ AGL/1196’ MSL.

Rwy 7L, building 1332’ from departure end of runway, 798’ left of centerline, 67’ AGL/1176’ MSL.

TAKE-OFF OBSTACLES

Rwy 26, light 59’ from departure end of runway, 63’ right of centerline, 16’ AGL/1125’ MSL.

Rwy 26, pole 58’ from departure end of runway, 90’ right of centerline, 25’ AGL/1125’ MSL.

Rwy 26, light 78’ from departure end of runway, 64’ right of centerline, 18’ AGL/1127’ MSL.

Rwy 26, light 38’ from departure end of runway, 440’ left of centerline, 24’ AGL/1135’ MSL.

Rwy 26, tree 234’ from departure end of runway, 214’ right of centerline, 24’ AGL/1133’ MSL

Rwy 26, light standard 64’ from departure end of runway, 68’ left of centerline, 1125’ MSL.

Rwy 26, tree 113’ from departure end of runway, 294’ right of centerline, 24’ AGL/1133’ MSL.

LOST COMMUNICATIONS: Expect filed altitude 3 minutes after departure.

Rwy 8, light standard 3530’ from departure end of runway, 1207’ left of centerline, 123’ AGL/1232’ MSL.


Rwy 25L, light standard 1129’ from departure end of runway, 774’ left of centerline, 91’ AGL/1200’ MSL.

Rwy 26, building, 2.32 NM from departure end of runway, 3309’ right of centerline, 406’ AGL/1496’ MSL.

Rwy 26, building 2.28 NM from departure end of runway, 3612’ right of centerline, 663’ AGL/1750’ MSL.


Rwy 26, light standard 74’ from departure end of runway, 456’ right of centerline, 33’ AGL/1142’ MSL.

Rwy 26, light standard 77’ from departure end of runway, 434’ right of centerline, 31’ AGL/1140’ MSL.

TAKE-OFF RUNWAY 8: Climb via 078^ heading to 1550 then climbing right turn heading

080^, at 4 DME east of PXR VORTAC, climbing right turn heading 100^, maintain 7000,

expect radar vectors to BXK VORTAC. Expect further clearance to filed altitude 3 minutes

after departure.

TAKE-OFF RUNWAY 7L: Climb via 078^ heading to 1550 then climbing left turn heading



after departure.

TAKE-OFF RUNWAY 7R: Climb via 078^ heading to 1550 then climbing left turn heading



after departure.

TAKE-OFF RUNWAY 25L/25R/26: Climb via 258^ heading to 1550 then climbing left turn

heading 240^, at 13 DME west of PXR VORTAC, climbing right turn heading 280^ to the

BXK R-077 to BXK VORTAC. Maintain 7000, expect further clearance to filed altitude

3 minutes after departure.

SW

-4, 08 JUN

2006 to 06 JUL 2006

SW

-4, 0

8 JU

N 2

006

to 0

6 JU

L 20

06

04050

PARADISE FOUR ARRIVALLOS ANGELES INTL

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

DE

NA

Y

above 8

,000’

N33 59.8

9’

W117 56.5

4’

Cro

ss a

t or

SO

CA

L A

PP

CO

N

12

4.5

2

69

.0

AT

IS 1

33.8

CR

ISY

N33 59.7

9’

W117 56.4

2’

Cro

ss a

t or

above 8

,000’

DU

NZ

L

Cro

ss a

t or

above 9

,000’

25

MIT

TS

N34 00.7

0’

W117 48.1

8’

Cro

ss a

t o

r a

bo

ve

10

,00

0’

32

N34 00.2

4’

W117 52.9

5’ LY

VIA

N34 00.1

3’

W117 52.8

4’

Cro

ss a

t or

above 9

,000’

28

SU

PA

I

Cro

ss a

t o

r a

bo

ve

10

,00

0’

W117 47.9

3’

N34 00 .61’

N33 59.2

9’

W117 53.8

5’

Cro

ss a

t or

above 8

,000’

CA

SIT

N33 59.5

8’

W117 50.7

4’

above 9

,000’

Cro

ss a

t or

29

TR

ES

E

N34 00.0

2’

W117 46.2

1’

Cro

ss a

t o

r a

bo

ve

10

,00

0’

FU

ELR

SU

ZZ

I

AR

NE

S

N33 59.1

7’

W117 53.8

1’

W117 50.7

0’

Cro

ss a

t o

r a

bo

ve

10

,00

0’

above 9

,000’

above 8

,000’

Cro

ss a

t or

Cro

ss a

t or

29

32

33

33

(3)

(4)

(3)

(3)

(3)

(4)

(4)

(4)

I-C

FN

I-O

SS

I-O

SS

I-O

SS

I-H

QB

I-H

QB

I-C

FN

I-C

FN

I-LA

X

I-LA

X

249

249

249

249

RW

24R

RW

24L

LO

CA

LIZ

ER

LO

CA

LIZ

ER

LO

CA

LIZ

ER

I-O

SS

108.5

I O S SC

han 2

2 111.7

I-H

QBI H Q B

Ch

an

54

I-C

FN

11

1.1 I C F N

Ch

an

48

RW

25R R

W25L

LO

CA

LIZ

ER

10

9.9

I-LA

XI L A X

Chan 3

6

15

15

13

13

N33 59.9

3’-W

117 45.9

2’

(2)

TE

JAY

N33 56.4

9’-W

117 35.9

2’

Cro

ss a

t or

ab

ove

12

,00

0’

TW

EN

TY

NIN

E P

ALM

S

114.2

TN

PT N P

Ch

an

89

N34 06.7

3’-W

115 46.2

0’

L-3

, H

-4

245

16,0

00 PA

UM

A

N34 00.3

4’

W116 28.9

1’

AR

RV

D

W116 43.9

6’

N33 56.0

3’

W117 21.0

4’

Cro

ss a

t or

ab

ove

14

,00

0’

TR

TLE

N33 56.6

5’

W117 13.8

7’

KO

NZ

LN

33 57.2

6’

W117 06.6

9’

TU

RB

OJE

T V

ER

TIC

AL N

AV

IGA

TIO

N

PLA

NN

ING

IN

FO

RM

AT

ION

Expect cle

ara

nce to c

ross

at 17,0

00’

R-005

HO

ME

LA

ND

113.4

HD

FH D F

TU

RB

OJE

T V

ER

TIC

AL N

AV

IGA

TIO

N

PLA

NN

ING

IN

FO

RM

AT

ION

Expect cle

ara

nce to c

ross

at or

belo

w F

L240

11

4.0

JLIJ L I

Chan 8

7

N33 08.4

3’-W

116 35.1

6’

OC

EA

NS

IDE

11

5.3

OC

NO C N

Chan 1

00

R-0

35

AM

IGO

N33 30.5

6’

W117 01.8

3’

JE

RO

MD

UE

DD

N33 50.9

0’

Cro

ss a

t 16,0

00’

PA

RA

DIS

E

112.2

P D ZN

33 55.1

0’-W

117 31.8

0’

PD

Z

Ch

an

59

N33 53.0

0’

W117 29.2

2’

Cro

ss a

t or

ab

ove

15

,00

0’

(9)

R-0

69

(6) 1

5

R-0

30

(6)

21(1

9)

40

53

(13)

9,0

00

300

(31)

(15)

6

(3)

R-1

19

299

(3)

NO

TE

: D

ME

or

RA

DA

R r

equired.

NO

TE

: C

ha

rt n

ot

to s

ca

le.

N

04050

PARADISE FOUR ARRIVALLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES INTL

N33 59.1

3’

N33 59.4

6’

8,000

8,000

16,0

00

NO

TE

: A

ircra

ft to p

roceed v

ia L

AN

DIN

G R

WY

25L u

nle

ss

oth

erw

ise

in

str

ucte

d b

y A

TC

.

249

277(4)

(9)

25

28

277

24

9

I-H

QB

MU

SIK

26

I-LA

X26

(36)

RIF

FT W

117 26.6

4’

L-3

, H

-4

(0.2)

(0.3)

JU

LIA

N

TU

RB

OJE

T V

ER

TIC

AL N

AV

IGA

TIO

N

PLA

NN

ING

IN

FO

RM

AT

ION

Exp

ect

to c

ross a

t 1

6,0

00

I-LA

X

Cro

ss a

t or

belo

w 1

7,0

00’

Cro

ss a

t o

r a

bo

ve

16

,00

0’

R-1

08

(14)

21

MU

ELR

N33 40.2

4’

W117 13.6

0’

Cro

ss a

t o

r b

elo

w 1

1,0

00

’

Cro

ss a

t o

r b

elo

w 1

1,0

00

’

Cro

ss a

t o

r b

elo

w 1

1,0

00

’

Cro

ss a

t o

r b

elo

w 1

1,0

00

’

(PDZ.PDZ4)

ST-237 (FAA)

(PDZ.PDZ4)

SW

-3, 08 JUN

2006 to 06 JUL 2006

SW

-3, 0

8 JU

N 2

006

to 0

6 JU

L 20

06

00223

ST-237 (FAA)

(PDZ.PDZ4)

PARADISE FOUR ARRIVAL LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

(PDZ.PDZ4) 00223

PARADISE FOUR ARRIVAL LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

ARRIVAL DESCRIPTION

LOS ANGELES INTL

LOS ANGELES INTL

JULIAN TRANSITION (JLI.PDZ4): From over JLI VORTAC via JLI R-300 and PDZ

R-119 to PDZ VORTAC. Thence....

TWENTYNINE PALMS TRANSITION (TNP.PDZ4): From over TNP VORTAC via

TNP R-245 to PAUMA INT, then via PDZ R-069 to PDZ VORTAC. Thence....

....From over PDZ VORTAC via PDZ R-277 to TEJAY DME fix thence via one of the four

Landing Rwy routes beginning at TEJAY.

Landing Rwy 25L: From over TEJAY INT via PDZ R-277 to ARNES DME, then via

I-LAX (Rwy 25L) to FUELR INT. Expect ILS approach.

Landing Rwy 25R: From over TEJAY INT via PDZ R-277 to TRESE DME, then via

I-CFN (Rwy 25R) to MUSIK INT. Expect ILS approach.

Landing Rwy 24L: From over TEJAY INT via PDZ R-277 to SUPAI DME, then via

I-HQB (Rwy 24L) to CRISY INT. Expect ILS approach.

Landing Rwy 24R: From over TEJAY INT via PDZ R-277 to MITTS DME, then via

I-OSS (Rwy 24R) to DENAY INT. Expect ILS approach.

SW

-3, 08 JUN

2006 to 06 JUL 2006

SW

-3, 0

8 JU

N 2

006

to 0

6 JU

L 20

06

E 1 1

U

7R7L

11096 X 200 HH

H

0 .3% UPA

A 5

A 5

0 .3% UPA 5

10285 X 150

8925 X 150

A 5

A 5 P

P

A

A 5

192

305

302

247

285151

6L6R

24R24L

25R25L

289

12091 X 150

PP

1173863

659

654

585

459

355

337

310296

296

284

291

7000

210^ (7.8)

069^

GAATE INT

I-LAX 17.2

MM LADLE

I-LAX

3.5

CATLY INT

LAX 12.8

210^030^

R-255

R-297

R-315

R-339

R-018

LOS ANGELES

113.6 LAX

Chan 83

IALX

ALXR-210

IM

249^3500

(4.8)249^1900

(5)

SEAL BEACH

115.7 SLI

Chan 104ISL

E NR O

UT E F

AC

I L I TI E

S

F E E DE R F A

CI L I T

I ES

10

NM

MS A L A X 2 5 N M

240^

010^

120^ 7700

4400 2700

ELEVELEVELEV

109.9APP CRS

GND CON

133.8

ATIS CLNC DELSOCAL APP CON

124.5 381.6

LOS ANGELES TOWER

N 133.9 239.3S 120.95 379.1

N 121.65 327.0S 121.75 327.0

121.4 327.0

249^ 102 126

Rwy Idg 25R

TDZE

Apt Elev

11096 101

126

Rwy Idg 25L

TDZE

Apt Elev

11134

MALSRRwy 25R

ALSF-2Rwy 25L

A

CATEGORY B C DA

200 (200- )301/18

439 (500- )540/24

620/50 518 (500-1)620-1

518 (500-1 )

540/50

12

LADLE FIX MINIMUMS

S-ILS 25L

SIDESTEP

RWY 25R

S-LOC 25L

12

620/50519 (500-1)

620/60519 (500-1 )

519 (500- )620/24S-LOC 25L

TDZ/CL Rwys 6R, 7L, 24R, and 25L

HIRL al l Rwys

TDZE

101

TDZE

102

249^ 5.4 NM

from FAF



(LAX)

(LAX)

LOS ANGELES INTL

LOS ANGELES INTL

AL-237 (FAA)

33^57’N-118^24’W

126

T

A 5

14

12

12

12

R-068

(IAF)

FUELR

I -LAX 26.4

LIMMA INT

I-LAX 7.4

LOC/DME I -LAX

36Chan

MISSED APPROACH: Cl imb to 800 then

cl imbing le f t turn to 2000 v ia heading 190^

and LAX R-210 to CATLY INT/LAX 12.8

DME and hold.

5000

249^ (9.2)

LOCALIZER 109.9

I -LAX

Chan 36

Rwy 6R ldg 9954’

Rwy 25R ldg 11134’

ILS or LOC RWY 25L

ILS or LOC RWY 25L

540/40439 (500- ) 3 4

182

439 (500-1)

Inoperat ive table does not apply to s idestep Rwy 25R Cats A/B.

Simul taneous approaches author ized wi th Rwy 24L/R.

POMONA

110.4 POM

Chan 41

POMIAF

(IF)

HUNDA INT

I-LAX 12.4

2000

7000

5000

1900620

Procedure

Turn

NAGS 3.00

TCH 55

FUELR

I -LAX 26.4GAATE INT

I-LAX 17.2

*

1900

* LOC only 249^

MMIM

0 .30 .2 3 .9 NM

800

190^ HUNDA INT

I-LAX 12.4

I -LAX

2 3500

5 NM 4 .8 NM 9 .2 NM

CATLY INT

1900 when author ized by ATC.*

# 3200#

LIMMA

I-LAX 7.4

LAX 12.8

LAX

R-210

113.6

LADLE

I-LAX

3.5

1 NM

Amdt 9 06047

1801501209060Knots

Min:Sec

FAF to MAP 5.4 NM

5:24 3:36 2:42 2:10 1:48

SW

-3, 08 JUN

2006 to 06 JUL 2006

SW

-3, 0

8 JU

N 2

006

to 0

6 JU

L 20

06

pmdg boeing 747-400 type rating course [lesson 4]

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