PSS A330 Speed

[Guest FedEx_4]

If the max operating cruise speed for the A333 is .86 mach why is it when I enter 100 into the cost index that it only brings the cruise speed up to .84 mach?? Basically when I enter 100 into the cost index it tells me that my cruise speed will be .84 mach. I tried also putting it in on the scratch pad but entering anything above .82 on the scratchpad and the FMC tells me "Format Error". To bring it up to .86 I have to manually pull the knob. Is this realistic to the real A333??KK

[Guest vrandar]

The reason is that Cost Index is not a percentage so 100 does not equal 100% of mach. You can actually enter up to 999 in the Cost Index box.Yes the figures are realistic.Rob Elliott, EGPE InvernessPSS Airbus Support andAirbus Fleet Training Captain, British Airways Virtual airbus@speedbirdonline.co.ukhttp://www.speedbirdonline.co.uk/airbus.htmlhttp://www.bavirtual.co.uk

[Guest FedEx_4]

Ok but even when I enter 100 into the cost index even though it says its gonna go .84 it recalculates as I get higher and then I still end up going .82. And also when I try to enter anything above .82 on the Cruise page via the scratch pad such as .84 or .86 it tells me "Format error", but if I enter say .82 or .81 it enters it w/ no problem. Please tell me if I am not being descriptive enough.KK

[Guest FedEx_4]

Can someone at least confirm that you can not enter a value of over .82 mach into the FMC's cruise page w/o it saying "Format Error" and rejecting that value. Basically my problem is that I can not enter any value above .82 mach into the FMC's cruise page. All it tells me is "Format Error", and I can not enter a number over .82 mach into the computer. However any number .82 mach and below is acceptable. And even when I put the cost index at 100 the computer still calculates the speed to be .82 mach even though the top cruise speed is .86 mach on the A330. Can someone try to enter a value above .82 mach into their FMC and tell me if it says "Format Error" and then after do another flight w/ the cost index at 100 and see what your cruise speed gets calculated too and report your findings to me. Your help is very much appreciated.Edit: I have some more info now. I just put my cost index at 150, and even though on the ground and in the air the computer told me that cost index would result in me going .86 I found out that the computer still goes to .82 mach once I reach the cruise phase of my flight. I also put the cost index at 120 in which the computer told me on the ground and in the air that cost index would result in me going .84 mach, but yet again it ended up just cruising at .82 mach. It's weird and unrealistic that you can not enter any value above .82 in the FMC and the cost index has no effect on bringing the cruise speed over .82 mach. The only way to get the speed to any value above .82 mach is to manually pull the knob and set it to say .86 mach or any other value above .82 which is unrealistic unless maybe any speed above .82 is reserved for emergancies and can only be activated w/ the knob. PSS staff please clue me in and get back to me w/ your findings, I really appreciate your help w/ this issue as it is quite annoying.KK

[highflyer1967 0]

Hi,When I want a high speed cruise what I do is, set my CI to 250 (and do not forget to check your alt and speed contrants or you may find the aircraft doing 300+ below 10000ft), this gives me a speed of around .84 or .85 mach which I find quite comfortable on my many long haul flights.Stevewww.auspilot.comhttp://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/26/26_11_8.gifhttp://www.avsim.com/pss/banner_sc.jpg

[martinlest2 58]

This is an old thread, but as I want to ask pretty much the same question...I cannot enter any speed values at all in the clb/crz menus of the CDU (a319/320/321), I get "Format Error" every time. Is this a bug or is anyone able to alter the speed/mach settings here?Thanks,Martin