Mxsmanic wrote:
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.

Is the FMC flying or are you? I'm not an airline pilot, so I'll go
ahead and ask the question (please real world answers only) is the FMC
the boss or is the pilot? If the FMC says optimal is such and such,
but ATC says do this, doesn't the airline pilot do what ATC says? I
always assumed that a FMS in a modern airliner was just a souped up
version of my Garmin 430. I.e. it has a plan, but what I get is ALWAYS
different. Even when I try to "guess" ahead of time.

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.

Yet another difference between your simulated world and the real world,
huh? Does the lack of heavy traffic make you a better simulated pilot?

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.

Two words, "Say again"

If you want to get a glimpse into real world ATC, take a look at Don
Brown's columns at Avweb
(http://www.avweb.com/news/sayagain/193881-1.html)