Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 10:22 am
"Hi Guys Just completed an Atlas Charter from Las Vegas - Heathrow. 10 + hrs in the 744f Real Time, took off at 0236 Local no problem, got to Vor Las, then the generic ATC puts me on a course of 070 which is taking me East away from the Designated Flight Path , after about 10 mins i,m thinking , this can,t be right so I turn the Aeroplane west back towards the magenta line of the Course as displayed, but ATC sends me again onto 070, so I wait until I,m passed onto Denver ATC, but before I contact them, I again attempt to get the Aeroplane back on course, ok, now I,m heading West back towards the Flight Path, switch on LNAV and get a FMC Message ""not on intercept heading"" which I certainly was, but the FMC wouldn,t have it! So I introduce a Discontinuity into the FMC just before the next waypoint on the Flightpath which happened to be GTF VOR, this then enables me to Delete all the previous Waypoints, I then delete the Discontinuity and as far as the FMC is concerned my SID is GTF VOR, I then switch on LNAV which then operates correctly and the FMC performs as normal as does the generic ATC when I contact them, so far so good! The rest of the Flight goes ok until I.m on descent into Heathrow, I press ARR/DEP on the FMC, key EGLL and lo and behold no Stars and No Approaches,so from then on it was a completely VFR approach at dusk with no Localiser and a rough heading from ATC with the Final Vectors, I,m on APP to R/way 09L with the correct Vspeeds and flap settings with the Gear Down and Locked, I realise I,m descending too soon and won,t make the threshold as I.m below the G/Slope according to the R/Way Lights, so I increase the Thrust and then FDC interprets this as a GA so my VCP starts reducing the Flaps and lifting the gear up, so I,m trying to get the Flaps and Gear Down again while maintaining enough Power to get me to the Threshold and keep the Aeroplane on course for 09L, suffice to say I,m short of the threshold and yaw quite a bit on the R/Way but we got down ok! Lessons learned! 1) If for whatever reason you have to make a VFR APP in the 744 or 742 and you use FDC , switch it off ! 2) It,s better to start the flight again than alter the course too drastically within the FMC because that must have removed all the info for EGLL from the FMC and you cannot physically enter the ILS Frequencies into the 744 as you can in the 742 which is a drawback when you find yourself in the above situation. Thanks for letting me get that off my Chest Safe landings Mike <!--emo&:wacko:-->[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wacko.gif[/img]<!--endemo-->"