Originally Posted by NuGuy

Heyas,

You guys need to man up over this VNAV crap.

I flew the DC-9 (all models) for 6 years, and the 727 before that. We worked descents all out in our heads, while fiddling with anti-ice, pneumatic crossfeeds, finicky pressurization (since replaced), trying to sync intermixed engines and FAs banging ice bags seemingly right behind your head. Some guys used a wizzwheel, others looked through the grommet at the middle of the wizzwheel and said "that looks about right", and usually it was.

You guys are starting to sound like the children of the magenta line. Fly the f'in jet already.

FWIW, the bus would often get slow in a VNAV descent, because it was allowed a speed range of 20 knots or so, and it would creep down to the bottom of the range by the end of descent. As a result, it would ALT CAP and say "ARRRGH! I'm 20 knots slow", go to full thrust, and it would sound like a lake full of angry Evinrudes. Sharp guys would set a speed near the bottom of descent so that this wouldn't happen.

Nu