I recently pulled up my FSX in a little spare time I had and set up a flight from UUDD to UUDL jsut for fun. I was using the PMDG 737NGX and REX as the weather engine. I asked REX to to use the real-world weather and it turned out to be a very snowy, cold day. Nonetheless, I set up the plane and went for the flight. Everything went well up until my final approach, where I made a call and would like my fellow virtual captains - or any real captains that may be around - to weight in if possible.
In FSX, UUDL does not have much to help one land as far as I could check. So I used my FMC route to get near the airport, but if I kept following the FMC it woud take me directly to the middle of the runway at an angle. So I switched to heading mode and flew a base leg by deviating from the FMC course while still following my descent plan, and made a turn to final using the runway heading (I was going for RWY05). By the time I saw the runway, I also realized that the descent would have to be a bit steep (around 1200-1300 ft/s) if I wanted to complete the landing. For a second or two I though about aborting the final approach and re-try the landing, yet I though this could work to my advantage. My reasoning was as follows.
1) The snow was strong. The runway is most like slippery.
2) I had some left/tail wing too (needed a bit of crabbing).
So I though that, by descending a bit steeper and flaring a bit earlier I could get the plane to land a bit harder, which would make the tires have more attrition with the runway (by the sheer force of the harder landing) and that would help in making sure the breaks could stop the airplane in a snowy/wet/tailwind situation. So I aimed the plane at the very beginning of the runway, descended around 1300 ft/s, set my autobreaks to MAX, and when close to it I pulled the yoke and reduced my vertical speed to around 700-800 ft/s and touched the rynway at the right spot.
I know, this is a simualtion and I don't think that FSX takes into account things like runway attrition coefficient, break efficiency given multiple weather variables (inserted by an external program by the way), and so on, but I wanted to make the right decision taking those factors into account.
The question is, what do you guys think? Was this a good call? Shoud I have tried a different landing? Any feedback is welcome.
Thanks!!!!