Originally Posted by
David1991
this is what I want to achieve very soon.
The 3 times distance rule works for me..but what I don’t get is that with the DME not helping here, since it is the direct distance to field only... I somehow need to have the Approx track miles being displayed to compare it with my alt... here again I need a proper path having entered in the FMC before again?
This seems a bit backwards.
I would be aiming to learn a proper visual approach first, then when you've got that nailed you can start adding bits and pieces to your nav display to aid the situational awareness you already have. DME is useful to have, but you must understand what it is telling you. A DME may be a couple of miles from the runway threshold so even if you are flying straight in, you can't just use 3 x DME distance for a profile. Remember also that you only need to get yourself to a final position, from there you should be descending on the PAPI or possibly the ILS glide slope if there's one available.
If you learn to fly a visual approach by programming and following an FMC track, what's going to happen when the visual approach gets sprung on you with little notice? You can't be heads down programming the FMC at 2000', you need to be able to transition smoothly to just looking out the window and using judgement.
More generally, I'd suggest that given you are starting a B737 type rating soon, you should probably not be trying to use a commercial flight sim to practice in advance. At best you will have better awareness of where the cockpit switches are but at worst you will learn a heap of bad habits that just need to be unlearnt. Your B737 endorsement is designed to teach people to fly a B737, you're best to let your trainers do their job at the appropriate time. In my opinion it would be more valuable for you to learn the SOPs that will be used in the sim. If this is your first jet transport rating you will soon find out that if your SOPs are no good, everything else falls apart as well.