I had it start a descent on its own one time. FMA said VNAV LVL the whole time. Kicked off the autopilot but lost about 300 feet before it was noticed.

 

The mind has a way of only fondly remembering the good and forgetting (suppressing) the rest. If it were the highest paying airplane and your seniority was the same would you bid it? Be honest.

 

Yeppirs.

The CA's job is to juggle, delegate, slow down (if necessary) and put a smile on in the face of incompetence and downright stupidity we see on a daily basis.

Being a good stick is way down the list.

 

The wide body growth is what seems to have driven LAX to go so junior. 55 777 As, 29 7ER As and 49 777 Bs had a cascading effect through the LAX list in both seats as people moved up the food chain. 73N A and 717 A only grew by 9 each, while the Bs for each look likely to have many openings to be filled with future new hire classes. Another driver of movement in LAX was the growth of the 7ER category in SEA.

 

I have had it both climb and descend uncommamded. I bid with guys on the airplane 15+ years on the plane and often hear a variant of "what is it doing?". You must have some awesome luck.

It doesn't matter if you are brand new or have time on the airplane, it will get you. Its ones ability to un**** the situation and recover that is important. That comes with just being on the plane for a while.

 

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

 

When they fix the brakes, the FMC, the spoilers, the flight controls, the standby instruments, the autopilot, get the lower nav display out from behind the yoke, finish documenting the stall characteristics, put E C's on the JT8, discover what effect Type !V has on trim tabs, undo the Dial-a-Flap nonsense, nail down the trim range, stop using flaps 11 (15 makes no difference), take the thrust reversers off and throw them in the river, put GPS on it, replace the DC10-30 hydraulic boost pump with something sensible that fits the application, wire the yoke light so it does not catch fire and scorch the wedding tackle, and fix the nosewheel steering, it could be a certif'able design, maybe. Anyway, that's the short list.

The loss of dignity, confidence and self respect really does make one a better, more empathetic person, reliant on the kindness of first responders and forbearance of authority figures. Isn't that what life is about?

It is nothing a 24 year old German test pilot at 9 am after 4 cups of coffee couldn't handle.

 

That is the funniest thing I have read in a long time!

 

The ER does this as well. It is part of the FMS programming when the 1st fix is an at or above. Long story short, the plane thinks it's already on the path and will maintain the path until it needs to start down to make the restriction. I flew with the LCA who wrote the FMS book (on the ER) and he set up an artificial example just to show me this behavior. Plane slowed to about 3 knots above slats extend speed at 35k' then eventually recovered itself. Didn't descend until what should have been TOD. I have never flown the maddog so I could be talking out my butt, but this could be a case of the plane doing exactly what you told it to do. I am NOT disputing that the 88 will occasionally pull a crazy Ivan on its own accord.

 

Can happen on any plane. Had it happen on the bus recently, FO pushed for managed decent at the computed decent point. Throttles came back to idle and managed decent was annunciation. The aircraft however did not go down. Had to pull for open decent to stop airspeed loss.