Course intercept

[Guest Jacob Lee]

Good day all. So I was flying Tokyo to Frankfurt on my trusty PMDG 747 using the "Narita 8 reversal departure." The departure procedure requires a certain heading to intercept a certain course (for example, "...then turn right 160 to intercept and proceed via CVC R-272 to TETRA". So I enter in the intercept course in the FMC under the legs page (put CVC in the 1LSK, double clicked on that tab so I could put in the course on the lower right side of FMC per the instructions in the manual). But when I clicked the heading tab and then hit the LNAV button it says that I am "not on an intercept heading." I get this message a lot. What is going wrong? -- Jake

[Guest 744nut]

"What is going wrong?"It means that your angle/distance towards the lateral path is to bigTon

[cowpatz 243]

Jake after you have put the intercept course in the FMC select HDG SEL and turn the aircraft so that it will intercept the new track you have entered. In other words the projected path of the A/C must cross this track you entered. When the heading off the aircraft is such that it will cross this track eventually, you can select LNAV. In the real world this will arm LNAV (it will appear in white under HDG SEL on the PFD mode annuniciator. When it gets close to the track LNAV will go green. In the SIM it just seems to end up going straight to LNAV and going directly to the waypoint. It should not do this. If you are not on an intercept course you will get that " not on intercept course" message. The whole thing is very similar to capturing the Localiser from an intercept heading. If the path of the A/C does not cross the path of the LOC then you will never intercept it.Hope that helps.CheersSteve