A320 Inbound Radial Intercept and Hold Pattern

[Guest jgcomp]

Hi to all of you Seasoned Professional Pilots, I am a member of a virtual airline and at one time or another a member wishing to get higher in rank must submit to a checkride. I believe I passed the passed the checkride spelled out below (I'll know for sure in a few days based on the video I uploaded to them) but using a B737 provided from their hangar as recommended. My questions are: a) I tried afterwards for my own good to do the same thing using the PSS A320. I got as far as executing the missed approach as published on the plate thus flying towards AP on track 006 degrees but could not determine how to get the A320 to intercept the YYJ inbound 230 radial. How does one program the MCDU or command the A320 to do it? :( How can the MCDU be programmed to execute a missed approach? or is it something done entirely manually in real life? c) How is the MCDU programmed to execute a hold pattern?Here is the textual excerpt for this discussion of the checkride: "Your aircraft is parked just off taxi way Gulf near Echo intersection in pullout area." "Set video recording to one second." "Taxi Gulf, Echo to rwy 09 CYYJ. Depart rwy 09 direct YJ NDB climb to 2500 MSL rwy heading. After climb preform NDB approach to rwy 27 CYYJ as published." "Fly approach to minimums and execute the published missed approach turn climbing initially to 3,000, intercept and fly inbound along the YYJ 230 radial, maintain 4,000 ASL. Enter hold at YYJ Vor 230 deg inbound radial, right turns, two min legs." "After one complete hold circuit fly direct MB NDB, then published ILS approach 09 CYYJ." "Land rwy 09 exit first available taxiway and stop aircraft."A thousand thanks to those who will take the time to study this question and provide useful answers. I know this is a long question but I think it might be valuable to several simflyers to make sure it is "As Real As It Gets".Jean-GuyPS: Attached are the actual instructions plus the pertinent plate.

[Guest vrandar]

I am currently drafting a reply to you and hope to get this up on the forum during tomorrow (Monday).

[Guest vrandar]

I will answer these questions in several posts as each response is possibly going to be quite lengthy. To begin with we have the problem of the inbound radial - something that the PSS doesn't quite model in the same way as the rw A320 but we can get close.One way to do this is to enter a PBD Place/Bearing/Distance fix. As the inbound radial is 230 the outbound is the reverse which is 50. So you could press the left LSK on AP and then enter YJ/50/12 into the scratchpad and then select Next Waypoint. In this case 12 is the distance from YJ (and is just a distance I plucked from the air). It will enter a new PBD fix which is shown as PBD01. If the fix you enter after PBD01 is YJ it means that from the PBD fix to YJ you are flying along the 230 inbound/50 outbound radial.The other way to do it is by using PBX Place-Bearing/Place-Bearing fixes. In your example you need to have AP programmed into the MCDU which is the final waypoint of the Missed Approach Procedure. The instructions then tell you to intercept and fly along the YJ 230 radial.The first part is the bearing from AP. This is tricky as the instructions give you no help as to the bearing or distance. So I have just chosen 130 degrees at random but roughly in the right direction. So this part of the PBX is AP-130.For the YJ part of the fix what you need to do is to work out what the outbound radial is. This is the reverse of the inbound 230 and is 50 degrees. So the second part of your PBX fix is YJ-50.The full PBX is therefore AP-130/YJ-50. Enter this PBX into the MCDU by pressing the left LSK next to AP, entering the PBX into the scratchpad and pressing the LSK next to Next Waypoint. This will enter a new entry in the flight plan page of the MCDU as PBX01 (assuming it is the first time you have tried it, otherwise it will be PBX02, PBX03 etc).The new fix will be about 12 miles away from YJ and you should then turn onto the YJ 230 inbound/50 outbound radial.However in many ways the first method using a PBD is the one I prefer and would probably use as for the PSS Airbus it makes the fixes and subsequent radial tracking more accurate although in a rw Airbus the second PBX method would be the recommended method.

[Guest vrandar]

To enter a hold as per your instructions, once you are in the air you should go to the PBD or PBX fix as in the previous post, press the LSK next to HOLD and in the hold screen enter 230 at LSK1L and 2 at LSK3 left.*****The full instructions for holds are as follows:A hold can be inserted at any valid waypoint in active route, or at present position. To insert a hold, open a LAT REV page for the desired waypoint, and select the "< HOLD" prompt.The system displays the default computed hold parameters, which can be modified and include:- Inbound course. Default is the route track into the fix waypoint.- Turn direction. "L" or "R" can be entered for left and right turns. Default are right turns.- Inbound leg time or distance. Default is 1 minute if below 14000 feet, and 1.5 minute if above. Either time or distance can be entered, the other parameter will be automatically calculated.To enter distance, start the entry with a slash ("/12.5")Once any parameter is modified, a "REVERT TO COMPUTED" prompt appears.The constructed hold can be inserted into the route or cancelled by selecting corresponding prompt.A holding pattern is displayed on the ND, and is represented on MCDU F-PLN pages as 3 lines, for example......PBX01HOLD RPBX01......First line represents holding fix, second one the hold itself, and third indicates the hold exit. Beforethe aircraft enters a hold, the hold can be modified by doing a LAT REV at the first of these 3 lines.To delete a hold which is not yet being flown, delete the second or third line. If first hold line is deleted,the holding fix waypoint will be deleted too.To create a hold at present position, perform a LAT REV at the very first ("FROM") waypoint. This allows to create a hold at "PPOS". The holding fix position will be updated to present location when "INSERT" prompt is selected.Depending on aircraft track and hold inbound course, the FMC will automatically select appropriate hold entry type: direct, parallel or teardrop entry.Once a holding pattern is intercepted, the F-PLN page will display an amber "IMM EXIT *" prompt nextto the "HOLD" waypoint. Selecting this prompt will command immediate hold exit, the aircraft willturn to the holding fix and the hold will be removed once the fix is over flown. The prompt changesto "RESUME HOLD *", selecting which will cancel the exit and the aircraft will return to the pattern.

[Guest vrandar]

It is possible to enter a Missed Approach Procedure into the MCDU but you need to do so well in advance and it is a bit fiddly. In most cases therefore you would do it in selected heading and speed rather than managed. However if you would like the tutorial for entering MAPs into the MCDU lease let me have you email address and I will send the doc to you.

[Barbs 2]

Hi Rob,Thanks for this info, it's very helpful.In the same section (as the info on holds) of the aircraft documentation from PSS I noticed instructions to fly a parallel course offset by selecting the FROM waypoint and entering an offset of eg. 20L or 30R. I have not been able to get this to work. Do you know if this is a format error in what I am entering into the scratchpad or is this function simply not modelled?Also, I too would be interested in how to program MAP into the MCDU.ldsr@netspace.net.auThanksGreg

[Guest vrandar]

I've just noticved I made an error in the location of the hold. It should have been at YJ rather than PBX01. Sorry for that but the method is exactly the same.

[Guest jgcomp]

Rob, As always, you are very thorough, extremely helpful and it is with much pleasure that I read your replies, to me as well as to all others. I have printed your replies as I will study them in depth to ensure I grasp all of their contents. I wish you were somewhere close to me, I would make sure I buy you a drink (or two) once in a while. Failing this, please accept my sincere thanks.Jean-Guy