First flight notes
I finally managed to complete my first flight. Things got hairy a couple of times but I recovered. I kept it simple no sids or stars which I don't use much anyway since I like short flights.
I do not think the lack of auto throttle is a big deal. The engines are not laggy certainly nothing like my Flight One King Air B200 which has the laggiest engines I've ever flown.
I haven't flown much manually yet because right now I've got my hands full trying to figure out the plane so I need auto pilot a lot more. However, the manual flying I did do seemed pretty smooth so I'm optimistic.
One thing I could not figure out and I looked everywhere is the GPWS landing flaps. What are they and how and when are they used ? Based on tutorials I set them at 15 on takeoff and 35 for landing but I don't know why I just did it based on what the tutorials said.
Since I have so little experience with fms I keep getting these "no link" messages. I read that I should not delete if that message appears after the airport runway. What are they and what if anything should I do ?
Comments
Congratulations on your first flight!
The "No Link" message is an indication that the flight plan has a "break" in it. Usually, each waypoint is linked up, from nav point to nav point and you see the continuous magenta line on the display. However, there are some situations where that magenta line may be broken, and not drawn between two points (a gap). This is where the FMC will display the "No Link" message.
Most of the time these gaps are completely normal. For example, it might be showing at the point which is the last flight plan waypoint at the end of your cruise; the point at which you now need to transition to the STAR. Or, it might be showing after the landing runway to signify the need to hand fly the aircraft to a holding point such as after a missed approach. In other words, the "No Link" gap is usually a normal indication and is there to signify where you might need to hand fly the aircraft to the next point manually, or where ATC would probably be giving you vectored instructions to get you to the next point.
That said, the "No Link" gap can also be indicative of an error in the flight plan. For example, you may have entered an incorrect waypoint in to the FMC and the system is not sure what to do.
You should always review the flight plan after entering it. If the "No Link" gap in your flight plan is supposed to be there as a reminder to you that you need to hand fly to the next point or that ATC will be vectoring you, then you shouldn't worry about it. However, if it is there due to an error, or if you know ATC won't be vectoring you at that point, then you should clear (delete) the "No Link" message(s). Doing that will (re)join the magenta line to the next point and give you a continuous line again. To clear a "No Link" message, click the LEFT key on the FMC that is next to the "No Link" entry and then click the "Delete" option on the RIGHT side of the FMC. Be mindful that after doing this you should re-review the flight plan again to make sure things look correct and the magenta line doesn't have you flying off in some other random direction.
I will leave others to comment on the GPWS landing flaps.
By the way, you're right about the King Air B200 engine lag. It lags quite a bit when compared to the Q400!
I simply remove all No links up to the destination runway. Why would you ever want or need to handfly the plane...? I doubt if there is a company out there that wants his pilots to handfly the plane apart from take off and landing. The AP always goes on somewhere during climb, usually pretty soon after take off already (often at acceleration altitude) and goes off somewhere near at decision height. There is no need at all to handfly the plane. Even IF you were getting vectored you’d use the AP’s heading mode. Why would you for instance want to hand fly between the SID exit point and the next waypoint when the plane can do it perfectly on AP?
GPWS Landing flaps: that switch is used for landing and is only there to let the GPWS system know which flaps you are going to use so it won’t warn you incorrectly.
Example: you plan to land with flaps 15 (which btw is the most used common setting). If you have the GPWS landing flaps set to 35 the GPWS system will start to warn you during landing because it think you haven’t set the right flaps yet and landing may go wrong. That’s it and that’s all.
You as a pilot have to decide which flap setting is needed for the landing (10 is seldom used, 15 is common and 35 is used on short landing runway) and then you set the switch to the correct position, simply to prevent the GPWS system from shouting at you during landing.
JvanE is correct ... airlines usually don't want pilots to hand fly their planes. So you'd most likely be deleting the "No Link"s out of your flight plan or using the autopilot's heading mode.
Flybe usually remove the disco after the SID, but leave the pre-STAR and pre-Trans discos in until theyre cleared for the arrival. And as another user already said, the discos behind the landing runway and the Missed Appch Proc should never be removed manually.
For the benefit of the original poster, "disco" is short for 'route discontinuity' ... synonymous with "No Link".
I learn better if I understand why I need to do something. So what happens if I remove a "disco" that I should not remove ?
For anything that comes before the landing runway you can basically leave or remove discontinuities as you wish, as long as it fits to what you have been cleared for. Leaving a disco in there serves as an useful hint that you have not yet been cleared for the procedure.
The disco right just after the landing runway seperates the 'normal' route from the missed approach procedure. If you removed this discontinuity manually, the Missed approach proc would constantly be displayed, which can of course (depending on the procedure) be highly misleading and disorientating for the pilots, as they would have a big mess of lines drawn on their ND.
If you go around, you would engage the go around by either pressing the GA button on the torque levers or by hitting 'Missed Approach' on the NAV page of the FMS. Both will automatically clear out the disco after the runway, so that the Missed Approach Proc will now appear on your Navigation Display.
The second disco after the landing runway is located between the missed approach procedure and the destination airport. In case of a go around you could set up for another arrival procedure into your destination airport in there.
So, lets imagine you just done a go around and are now on the Missed approach procedure. Clearing out that last disco would mean that, after the Missed Approach, your LNAV would lead you straight back towards the Dest airport. You obviously don't want that to happen.
That's why you would never really remove any discos that follow your runway.
Thanks for that explanation. I have almost no experience with fms so this is all new to me.