VNAV: descent out of 10,000 to a straight-in visual.

[Rocketman99]

Unfortunately, I've seen and flown with way too many pilots that can't competently/confidently fly the jet manually. It seems like today's new generation of pilots (especially at the regional level) are not confident flying the jet manually and some are borderline competent doing it.

Some of the scariest words a new age pilot will hear from ATC is "cleared for the visual".

It's the equivalent of nails on the chalkboard when we get cleared for the visual and the guy/girl I'm flying with proceeds to set the plane up on an 8 mile final squaring all turns for an a/p coupled appraoch. Really? REALLY? That's like the one chance you have to actually be a pilot. Makes me wonder if perhaps they can't actually fly. You can only get better if you practice, but you should be a damn pro by the time you get to the airline level. Or at least that's what everyone is led to believe. Automation is supposed to be there to help, not to be a crutch.

 

[Pilotforhire587]

I guess it would all depends on the type of approach you're doing, your ops specs (LNAV only? LNAV/VNAV? RNP?), and the congestion at the airport you're flying into.

We have LNAV/VNAV and RNP on our Q400's, and it works like a charm. The Universal UNS-1 that we have will back calculate the altitudes for you if you're starting an approach from an IAF all the way down to the MAP...so essentially you have a seamless transition across all fixes and it's a constant descent.

Don't you love the universal UNS systems, We have it on the Q200 and Q300 as well.

 

[Pilotforhire587]

It's the equivalent of nails on the chalkboard when we get cleared for the visual and the guy/girl I'm flying with proceeds to set the plane up on an 8 mile final squaring all turns for an a/p coupled appraoch. Really? REALLY? That's like the one chance you have to actually be a pilot. Makes me wonder if perhaps they can't actually fly. You can only get better if you practice, but you should be a damn pro by the time you get to the airline level. Or at least that's what everyone is led to believe. Automation is supposed to be there to help, not to be a crutch.

I know exactly what you mean, its even worse when you are the airplane behind them, hear them cleared for the vis, then you are, but you can't cut the corner because the idiot in front is continuing to intercept the ILS. If you really need a quick way to metally tell if you are high or low plan on a 300' descent for every mile from the runway you are, that works out to just about be a 3* approach.

 

[SurferLucas]

Don't you love the universal UNS systems, We have it on the Q200 and Q300 as well.

I think it's a good FMS for the type of flying that we do, the guys that came over from the CRJ HATE it...(whiny voice of CRJ pilots) "It doesn't have a scratch pad", "Where's my banana"...blah blah blah.

For me I thought it was a very easy transition from the Garmin 430/530/G1000 system that I had been using when I flight instructing to the UNS-1.

And you should have those in the Q200, since they do have PH on the tail

 

[Pilotforhire587]

We have them in the Q200's and we have UNS1+ in the 300's just about the same system aside from some small quirks. I agree very easy transition from Gen av stuff.

 

[cmhumphr]

Mental math ftw! I agree with Rocketman99 with the visual approaches. Practice makes perfect! Especially when they clear you at exactly 35 miles out. Cowboy approach it is!