Originally Posted by
Dash8widget
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
Early DC-10's were prone to do the same things, usually heard from the lower galley pretty quick. Had it capture the ILS glide slope at JFK and the lights of New York start to disappear. The sea spray was the big give away that it had captured the "Phantom" slope, ol' skipper went back to hand flying permanently.