DC-8 Menus That Are Not Explained in the Manuals

[kmanning 4]

There are a couple of things that the DC-8 manuals are not explaining. One is the DC-8 Services menu and the other is the Fuel and Payload Loader. Their descriptions are not explained anywhere in the manuals, at least, I haven't found them. But I've been through every manual and every page for information about these menus. I pretty much understand most of them but there are at least 3 items that need to be explained regarding the DC-8 Services Menu. They are 'Auto Flight Engineer,' 'Set Destination Altitude,' and 'Begin Decent.' I don't understand why these menus have not been explained in detail in the manual. Some of these are not self explanatory. Example, what does the Auto Flight Engineer actually do? When it's active, does the flight engineer take care of every action that he's responsible for so that I don't have to? So far, it hasn't done that. I still have to set the switches and dials on this panel, which is something that the pilot is not supposed to do. Since it says 'Auto Flight Engineer,' I assume this would do every action that needs to be done on the flight engineer's panel. Is there something else I need to do to make this work, or is that the purpose for that button? Regarding Setting the 'Destination Altitude' and 'Begin Decent,' why is that information required and why do I need a 'Begin Decent' button when I'm ready to start my decent? They are not explained in the manuals.

 

Ken.