Speedbrakes and Pax fear level

[rfbarber]

Greetings,

Is there any way to be able to deploy the speedbrakes without the passengers freaking out? Flying the 737 series requires the brakes on
most descents, and I'm getting banged for scaring them whenever I deploy the brakes.

Might there be an ini alteration for this?

Thanks
Chip B.

[jetBlue220]

Hmm, I've never had a problem with speedbrakes, at any point in a flight. Never.

[Galih Prasetya]

me neither....I have hundreds of hour with 737 (kittyhawk and PMDG), and never had problem with speedbrakes....

[Cydon Prax]

when your descent rate goes below 4,000 Fpm, the pax will cry, scream, and yell. This is usually the result of a heavy descent!
Commercial aircraft descent at max 3,000 if they had an error or came up too light or just had planning problems. Infact, using the speed
brakes is a sign of bad descent planning as usually you should be able to do a smooth 20-2500 descent rate through the entire course
of the descent until 10,000. At that point you level off, slow down, and do a slower descent.

Ofcourse, this is going off of what I've heard and seen, not actual directives. But as I hear, this is how it is done. To fix your problem, make
sure you are'nt diving to your destination.

[aristoteles]

"Death dive descent"

[rfbarber]

Thanks all,

No, this is a 2800 descent, as directed by ATC. The moment I deploy the brakes, in order to keep the PIC bird from accelerating, the pax
go nuts, and the fear level skyrockets.

Chip B.

[Drew]

did they have there belts on??

[rfbarber]

Good Question, I'll check on that. The belts are on auto, and we have already begun the descent.

Most certainly worth checking out.

Thanks
Chip B.

[huskydude]

Have you tried, chopping throttle to about 30% and less and allow it take effect and start your descent and then apply brakes as
necessary?

I also use a little down trim too...

[rfbarber]

No, I usually do a VNAV or MCP SPEED descent. Either way, I hold off on the brakes until it is apparent the speed will continue to climb
rather than slowing eventually as the aircraft settles into the descent. The 737's are just so darn slippery - they just love to speed right
along while descending ...

Thanks
Chip B.

[olseric]

Hmm, no problem with that ever here...and the A330 starts off at about 3000 fpm down...

The A320 and B757 use the brakes a bit on the way down as well and never had that issue.

[Pablo0007]

Hi,

Just a thought. How far out do you start your decent. I find that on an IFR flight, the ATC start you decending too late. You should desend
at about 1500-1800 ft per min on your auto pilot Vs slider.

this is what I do with all my aircraft. (The PMDG 737 is the exception) I usually start to slow the aircraft down to 220kts at about the
190nm mark. Then depending on the height that I am, I devide the flight level by 3 and that is the recomended starting point to desend.
That was taken flom an airbus flight manual. Istart about 10 miles earlier. So if I am at FL330 instead of starting at 110nm I start at
120nm, ensuring that as you start your desent you are already at 220kts or there abouts. Once the aircraft starts decending, disengage
the auto throttle and bring the engines to idle or press F1. set Vs to around 1500/1800 (no more than that yet), brings flaps down to the
1st setting (no more than that or your flaps freeze up and break) and if the aircraft speeds up a little reduce the rate of decent a little.

Once you are at or around 210kts put 1 more stage of flap and the speed will decrease and just adjust the speed until the speed stays at
190-200kts so that when you reach 10000 ft you will be under the speed restriction and with 2 stages of flaps down (flaps 5 on the 737).

The key to stopping the overspeed is to disengage the auto thottle. you should not need to use the speed brakes at all until you touch
down.
As I said the PMDG is different as I desend more slowly. I only desend at 1100 ft per min as the idle speed once you disengage the
autothottle and throttle yo idle, N1 is still around 40% or so. You need to desend earlier to male the runway.

Hope that this helps a little and your passengers don't scream too much.
Paul