Mike,
1) as I said in my first post, the scenario I'm talking about is the "difficult" one, not the easy one.
No doubt if you have all the magic available (glass, FMS, Vpath) you can simply push a button...
What I've often seen in cockpits not that advanced, is that when they try to fly a continuous descent they end up high...
2) flying a circling app. on autopilot or manually is not the point.
The point is somebody said that flying level on a large transport aircraft is unacceptable.
Thus my question about the circling...
3)
for every selection of the MCP there is opportunity for error
As for not selecting the various intermediate mandatory altitude steps in the MCP, as far as most approaches go in Europe, as alf says, you can check that the flight path is at or is above each step-down altitude during the descent by very slightly modifying the ROD.
I don't believe my eyes!
Ok, gentlemen, from now on we'll throw the MCP ALT window out of the window, because every selection is dangerous, and when given descent clearances, or when shooting a STAR or an approach, we'll simply
MONITOR to make sure we clear all obstacles!
