Pixel Dent writes:

Well, once again I don't know much about airliners, but in smaller
planes at least you don't generally increase airspeed to descend you
reduce power.

The FMC does this through the autothrottle. At least the one I use
lets you choose between a descent path (altitudes respected, ignoring
speed constraints if necessary) and a speed path (speeds respected,
even if altitudes must be ignored), with the former being the default.
At least that's what I understand of it thus far.

Anyway, the FMC normally controls lateral and vertical navigation and
the throttle, and optimizes all in order to attain its preprogrammed
path, altitude, and speed.

At least in the area of the country I fly ATC often has
speed restrictions on the airliners so they couldn't increase speed
during a descent if they wanted to. It's good practice to hold your
airspeed steady while reducing power to make your descent.

The FMC tries to do this, although altitude and course are normally
the priorities. It does a good job in most cases.

In the world of simulation, we rarely have heavy traffic, so I only
occasionally get speed restrictions. They are not too hard to
respect, usually--just setting a different speed in the FMC is often
sufficient.

Practice, practice, practice. Everyone has a hard time understanding at
first but the more you listen the more it makes sense.

Probably, but it seems so easy to misunderstand that I should think it
would be very mistake prone. I read back almost every instruction I
get to ATC just to make sure that I've understood it.

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