Vertical navigation

The crew then descended at a rate that approached six degrees, about twice the normal three-degree descent angle.

Now, I've read that the Boeing 767 has a VNAV path mode that can follow a computed vertical path that can look almost like a three-degree glide slope.

And unlike the 767's glide slope, or GS mode, which will descend through any selected altitude, the VNAV path mode will level off at the selected altitude.

So in my mind, it's quite probable that this crew thought that they were in glide slope mode when they were actually in VNAV path mode, which would explain why the aircraft leveled off unexpectedly.

So it appears to me that that automation surprise started the accident sequence, which ultimately led to the aircraft being high and fast and running off the end of the runway.

The NTSB has said that the 55-year-old captain had 7,145 total flight hours, and received his Boeing 767 type rating in May 2026, about four months before the September 6th accident.

Hey, Brady brings up a really good point going back to the TLD.

It says VNAV top of descent won't show until you close the star.

If you have a discom.

Yeah, we have a discom.

If you do close it, know that you likely have a vector that you're expecting from ATC and don't just go shoot it or go beyond your cleared upon point from the star or the approach.

But that's good to know that that's why that shows that way.

But that's a good opportunity to talk about one of the things that I've added to the VNAV here is the advisory VNAV portion.

So essentially in the pro line, when you have a section where it's not, you have a vector section or a section that with a discontinuity, you can still get the option of advisory VNAV, but it would not be a coupled VNAV.

It's less than 5,000 feet long, [laughs] and runway 2-5 does not have any instrument approaches.

When the winds are out of the west, which they usually are, we'll fly the RNAV 2-8 circle to 2-5 without VNAV in a 121 jet airliner to a 4,999-foot runway-

Oh

... and without leading edge slats to boot, we operate the mighty Embraer 145.

This airplane, without leading edge devices, probably has significantly faster approach speeds for that size of airplane that may have leading edge devices.

So you're chugging along.

[laughs] You have no benefit of VNAV, which is a calculated glide slope outside of an actual ILS.

That fair-