The flare mode is not intended for single autopilot or flight director only operation.
Flare arms when LAND 3 or LAND 2 annunciates. At approximately 50 feet radio altitude, the autopilots start the flare maneuver. FLARE replaces the G/S pitch flight mode
During flare: • at 25 feet radio altitude, the autothrottle retards thrust levers to idle • IDLE replaces the SPD autothrottle flight mode annunciation • at touchdown, the FLARE annunciation no longer displays, and the nose lowers to the runway."
There have been reports on this thread that are contrary to the above, unless you take the first sentence as meaning that none of the description that follows the first sentence applies to a manual landing. Check out CCA's post.
I do fly the 744, but I have been out on a medical leave. As I dug into the FMC logic with time to kill, I realized how little I really knew about how it would behave under certain circumstances. When I dug further, it became apparent that my peers were equally clueless. The answers I have received on this forum confirm that it is not just limited to my peers at my airline. We have first-hand testimony from one pilot that it will go from SPD to IDLE and another guy saying that IDLE never happens -- it just goes from SPD to a blank FMA. How could there be such a discrepancy from 744 to 744 with nothing written in the manuals to explain it? Anyway, thanks for the input.