Hello.

I have recently purchased the Boeing 757-200 model and so far it is brilliant and makes a refreshing change to the glass cockpit of the another company 747-400. I am still reading the helpful manual Captain Sim has provided with the product, so I am just starting to get the gist of most of the systems.

I decided to try out and test the autoland system today at KLAX. I took off from runway 07L after setting up the aircraft and FMC, flew a normal circuit out over the sea and came back inland to capture the localizer.

The localizer capture was armed and displayed on the PDF annunciator as LOC in white. Upon capturing the localizer, the LOC became green and was enclosed in a rectangle. Once lined up, I armed the capture of the glideslope (APP), which was displayed on the annunciator as G/S in white. The glideslope shortly came alive and at about 1500ft agl, all three autopilots became engaged (the left autopilot was already engaged after takeoff and the centre and right autopilots automatically engaged at about 1500ft agl during the approach).

Shortly before touchdown, FLARE and ROLLOUT were annunciated in white. I was relieved because I was starting to think there may have been a problem.

As I was about 30ft off the ground, I noticed that the aircraft was not flaring. In fact, it came crashing down on the nose gear. I hit the disconnect autopilot bar and applied manual braking. Fortunately the nosewheel hadn't sunk into the ground making the aircraft resemble the Gimli Glider.

As I was typing this, I realised I forgot to disconnect the autothrottle before touch down, which is probably the reason the aircraft never flared.

So, instead of me asking why the autoland never went according to plan, I'm now asking would forgetting to disconnect the autothrottle cause the aircraft not to flare?

My approach speed was 139kts.

Thank-you.
PS: This is a general question. No technical support is needed.

Hey Bob.

Thanks for your quick reply! Apologies if this has already been brought up before and good news that the team know about it and will try and fix it in the next version.

I tried autolanding again at San Francisco and remembered to disengage the autothrottle system this time, but yes, it is to do with the trim.

Thanks again!