Originally Posted by
Xray678
The perception is much worse than the reality. As a former LCA on the 88/90 I had lots of guys turn to me during a line check or OE and ask what's going on after the plane did something they weren't expecting. But I never saw the airplane do something they hadn't just told it to do.
Seriously? Maybe I was just lucky then. A couple of times flying one of the RNAV arrivals into PDX, got an early descent clearance. Went to the FMS, hit desend now, had the throttles go to idle but it stayed in VNAV LVL
. Airspeed started bleeding off in a hurry, as I'm frantically reverting to a lower level of automation
. Yes, everything was programmed and set up properly. I've also seen it go into ALT CAP on a descent but just kept right on going - right through the altitude... It WILL do things (or not do things, as the case may be) that it's not supposed to, even when it's set up/programmed properly. You just need to be paying attention, especially during transitions...but that's all just part of the allure
