737 & "Marrying the Bugs"

[mynameisjim]

I had a buddy flying with me who didn't sync it up alll the time and when told to turn right to a heading, the plane turned left when he hit heading select because he had left the heading bug on an old heading.

That made me chuckle.

 

[Bigoober]

I had to at the time to because you could see the "what the hell is the plane doing" look on his face when it happened.

Easy correction, easy learning experience.

 

[JimmyKool]

"2. Another good one is to be 1 number off on speed and/or heading. Trust me, it will annoy the hell out of them and you'll get a good laugh."

God that's the funniest s**t in the world!

 

[pipe]

It's actually a safety of flight issue. What if ATC all of a sudden said "fly your present heading for traffic" and you had your heading bug many degress off your current heading and you then pushed your heading button on the MCP? Your a/c would take a sudden turn to follow the off the nose heading bug. This is a safety issue as you could potentially turn toward your conflicting traffic and you could upset the passengers with the sudden turn.

It actually is an issue of poor design. You should be able to push the heading slew knob to instantly sync the heading bug -- like in every other airplane built since 1985.

PIPE

 

[8v8ter]

It's actually a safety of flight issue. What if ATC all of a sudden said "fly your present heading for traffic" and you had your heading bug many degress off your current heading and you then pushed your heading button on the MCP? Your a/c would take a sudden turn to follow the off the nose heading bug. This is a safety issue as you could potentially turn toward your conflicting traffic and you could upset the passengers with the sudden turn.

Given. But if you get in the habit of turning the heading bug to the desired heading BEFORE pushing HDG select, no problem. Just pushing HDG without knowing exactly where the bug is, (even if you married them up only 2mins ago they might be off some) never made sense to me.

 

[ImbracableCrunk]

Given. But if you get in the habit of turning the heading bug to the desired heading BEFORE pushing HDG select, no problem. Just pushing HDG without knowing exactly where the bug is, (even if you married them up only 2mins ago they might be off some) never made sense to me.

I agree. Just because ATC says, "Fly heading xxx," I don't scramble to punch a button. Would you hit L-NAV before you saw what the course would do? No.

If it is a collision avoidance issue (as Browntothebone suggests) well, I'm not going to wait for the A/P to turn.

 

[Rhino]

I vote for McNugget

I also put the bug one or two off, just to see if the anal captain can't stand it and has to make an adjustment. You are not going to "save the day" by having your bugs married up vs. being one or two degrees off. Like someone mentioned earlier, before you change your mode, you should know where your heading bug is and if it's not exactly where you want it, then in about half a second it can be. Also, when ATC says "right 10 degrees for traffic" I enjoy flying 11 or 12 degrees right if I feel like it.

I also enjoy calling for flaps 2.

 

[tico]

ICrunk, I think you are a newby so..Do what your f##kin told or you will fly the radios for the rest of the trip and Rhino, you have been a copilot too long...Just marry the bugs....who cares....just so that it is in front of the airplane....It is what we do here....F##kin children

 

[pianoman]

If the other guy really is a lot happier by synching the bugs up, I couldn't care less if he does it.

Certainly nothing wrong with it- if the FMC starts a 'what it's doing now?' turn you can just mash hdg.

Certainly the airplane is low-tech in many ways but that's kind of the fun of it too.

 

[macdu]

How about just operating your companies plane the way they ask you to. If there is no guidance on the heading bugs then, to each his own. If there is guidance on the marrying of them, then do it. End of discussion.

 

[Captzaahlie]

Given. But if you get in the habit of turning the heading bug to the desired heading BEFORE pushing HDG select, no problem. Just pushing HDG without knowing exactly where the bug is, (even if you married them up only 2mins ago they might be off some) never made sense to me.

Winner #1

 

[Captzaahlie]

How about just operating your companies plane the way they ask you to. If there is no guidance on the heading bugs then, to each his own. If there is guidance on the marrying of them, then do it. End of discussion.

winner #2

 

[Captzaahlie]

ICrunk, I think you are a newby so..Do what your f##kin told or you will fly the radios for the rest of the trip and Rhino, you have been a copilot too long...Just marry the bugs....who cares....just so that it is in front of the airplane....It is what we do here....F##kin children

Honorable mention....

 

[IBNAV8R]

Just curious. For those that insist on sync'ing the HDG bug for reasons of mode reversion. How long are you going to fly in HDG mode before realizing you are no longer in the mode you selected? For me, if the HDG bug is not synced and the airplane is not trying to turn to it, I find it a nice second confimation that the airplane is still flying the course I selected.

 

[Singlecoil]

Flaps 2! I love that one too.