Quote:Many thanks for your replies. At least about the ADF I am fully covered now.
Now and since Nexus82 asked what exactly I want to learn about 747-400, I am actually interested inthe correct final descent to the runway.
So far I am using flaps 25. N1 at 60% and a nose up pitch of 2-3 degrees. This makes a speed of 180 (maybe a bot more) KIAS which I reduce when I do the flare to about 160-170 setting the throttle to idle just after passing the threshold. The only problem is that sometimes this leads to a steep descent (1000 FPM or a bit more) crashing the aircraft. I also tried to increase the nose pitch while descending to about 5-6 and this keeps the descent to a normal rate but yet I am afraid that if I do a flare increasing the pitch more the tail could touch ground first. I would like to know the correct procedure because I don't think the pdf which comes with the FS2002 CD is correct for the 747.
Allright, those questions are good ones, and I'm afraid there is no universal answer to this. First of all, how much fuel do you carry when landing? This has a great impact on the Vref speed (approach speed). Then we have the winds, of course, which also is a factor when it comes to approach speeds. But as a good general of thumb: The -400 series at Maximum landing weight will have an approach speed of around 150 KIAS (add or subtract 5 knots), and this is with flaps 25, not 30 (full flaps).
The Vref speed is usually 1.3 times stall speed in landing configuration (VSO) plus 50% of the wind gust speed in excess of the mean wind speed. So as you can see the Vref will not be the same for all flights.
Also, due to its new improved wing design, the -400 series tend to have a lower aoa approach than its predecessors (series 100, 200 and 300). So 5-6 degrees upward pitch during approach seems abit too much.
All these facts are from the real life. The simulator is exactly what the name says: An effort to imitate the real deal. What I want to say is; the aircraft handling and characteristics for you 747 might not be 100% accurate. The reason for saying this is that most of the default planes in FS suffers from this syndrome. Try to swap your 747-400 FDE with a more accurate one, might want to search here on SimV or at avsim.com.
One more thing: The info above are just what first came to my mind, I haven't had the time to do some serious checking to verify what I've written above. But I'm quite sure I've got most of it right
I hope this helped some!
Edit: Changed the Vref speed above...
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