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What exactly do I do to initiate the takeoff roll?   I simply engaged the autothrottle button (they were armed already) on my first flight, but it seemed a little weak.  Do I need to do something with the TOGA buttons on the throttles first?

This is a bit of a personal choice. I use the TOGA buttons on the Throttles, then after having raised the landing gear, I turn the Autopilot ON, and then, depending on the SID, I will engage LNAV (or HDG SEL if VECTORS is listed as the next waypoint) and VNAV.


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Also, although I have VNAV configured for the entire flight,  I am flying with default ATC  in FSX, so I break off the flightplan about 60-70 miles out as instructed, and I take over vertical navigation and speed myself and use heading mode to follow ATC vectors for the ILS    I can't figure out how to set up for an ILS landing.  How do I set the NAV radio for the proper frequency?   I thought I had done so in the CDU, and I set the knob on the MCP to approach from map mode, but the ILS never came alive after I was turned  to intercept.  The GS indicator did show up.

On the CDU, open the RAD/NAV Page. In the scratchpad, enter the Frequency/Heading of the ILS in this format -> XXX.XX/XXX (111.10/335), then press LSK4L. IF the frequency/heading is already there, press LSK4L TWICE! The first press copies it to the scratchpad, the second press pastes it back. There will be an M after it, which tells you that it has been done manually, so make sure it is the correct FREQ/HDG.

http://i669.photobucket.com/albums/vv58/Markoz958/777_ILS_FREQ_HDG_zpsb6667ad6.jpg