Landing Question 737

[norris]

I apologize if there is a better place to put this question but I really did look around and couldnt find anything. I am getting so much better at flying the 737 that now I am down to my last challenge. First it was navigation and then it was ILS. Well I have all that and I line right up with my runway EVERY flight. I have flaps on full as I approach the runway and landing gear down. I CRASH ON EVERY ATTEMPT.
I assume I am either going to fast, or not holding my plane correctly as I touchdown and ANY help would be appreciated.

So on the 737--

Good landing speed?
How can I tell if I am descending to quickly?
Any other pointers would be very much appreciated.

[skylab]

Need a little more info. Approach speed for one. Speed crossing the fence would help too.

[norris]

Well I am not sure how to determine "speed crossing the fence" but I seem to be able to get the plane down to about 180 at touchdown.

[skylab]

I don't think there's a 737 of any variety that calls for 180kts at touchdown! That's way too fast. Unless it was blowing a gale, I don't think I ever landed over about 140kts. Probably the norm was around 110-120. Don't really recall now, but that sounds like enough. Try that and let us know how you do.

[TCX559K]

I get my planes down with (almost) full flaps, and I reduce the throttle to idle as soon as I'm lined up. If I go too low, I give a blast from the engines just to maintain a good landing speed. I aim for around about 80-120 knots on landing, and it's not too hard to stop the plane. Sometimes I come down too slowly (meaning I get halfway down the runway before landing on it) and I need to slam the parking brake on. Don't do that in real life! For the love of God don't do that! I only do it in an emergency situation, or, alternatively, I could do a go-around. They're not as easy as the parking brake thing, but it gives you another shot at landing the plane.
Just remember to keep slow when on final.

[norris]

Ok so I may have some issues getting that last bit of slowing during touchdown. While being on planes I notice that the Airbrakes dont usually come on until after touchdown, but are these something that I use a little to slow me down to the speeds you are talking about? I cant seem to get it slow enough with full flaps...

[norris]

Originally Posted by TCX559K

I get my planes down with (almost) full flaps, and I reduce the throttle to idle as soon as I'm lined up. If I go too low, I give a blast from the engines just to maintain a good landing speed. I aim for around about 80-120 knots on landing, and it's not too hard to stop the plane. Sometimes I come down too slowly (meaning I get halfway down the runway before landing on it) and I need to slam the parking brake on. Don't do that in real life! For the love of God don't do that! I only do it in an emergency situation, or, alternatively, I could do a go-around. They're not as easy as the parking brake thing, but it gives you another shot at landing the plane.
Just remember to keep slow when on final.

Awesome and some great feedback. Maybe I am just waiting to long to kill the throttle on approach. I am going to try to idle in. Is there any indication I should look for prior to killing the engines to idle as in how far I am from runway or something?

Thanks a lot for the help btw, I just really want to land this plane without the "no crash" cheat on.

[TCX559K]

Just remember that once you are about 6 miles from the runway, kill the engines, but try and maintain a relatively low speed Keep in contact with ATC and you should be ok. Always remember that if you hear 'Don't sink, don't sink' then you're going down. And remember to watch the altimeter.
Hope this helps,
Joel

[bumpkin]

I usually use the autothrottle system, when about 20nm away reduce speed to 155kts and bring in the flaps. Set autospoilers (SHIFT + /) and autobrakes.

Make sure that speed is being bled off and gradually introduce more flaps until only final flap setting left. Bring down gear at about 10nm and reduce speed to 140kts. Once speed settles again disconnect autothrottle. When lined up on glideslope (either by using APR) or manual flight control the nose of the plane needs to be pointed down to maintain slope, this will increase the speed so I then apply the last flap setting and then hold speed by throttle control.

As you passs over the end of the runway, reduce throttle to idle and maintain level flight, the nose of the plane will need gradually pulled up which then bleeds the speed off and you should touch down at about 100-110kts.

When you touch down apply reverse thrust either by throttle (if you have one) or by holding F2. Remember to switch back to idle at 60kts and to disengage the autobrake so that you don't end up parked on the runway.

It is probably not "by the book" but it works for me

[norris]

So the autospoilers make the needed adjustments and work with Autothrottle to assure that its bringing the speed down? This is making sense now. I may have to try that, as I am doing much of everything manually at this point. I use ILS to get me there and once ATC has told me that I am ok straight in, is when I start trying to tone everything down for the landing.