MD11 Screen Freeze during MDCU use

[Guest John Morgan]

I have been training myself on the MD11 for some time, off and on, without screen problems. Now I have come up against a problem not previously experienced whereby the screen freezes after an MCDU entry during the compilation of a simple flight plan. I have found it difficult to trace exactly what is causing it but it does occur when I attempt to change an altitude in the Sec F-Plan using /3000 . The climb/descend line shows up after pressing th e appropriate key but thereafter I can do nothing. The 'push only' cursor shows but though I can move it around the whole screen it does not work when pushing any LSK or RSK or any other control in the cockpit. The only way out of the screen is through control alt delete.I am using FSX and Vista 65I would be grateful for any advice available,Best wishes, John Morgan

[downscc 1,327]

It shouldn't lock up regardless of user input, but still being new we probably haven't tried every wrong entry we can think of...Altitude constraints are made from the VERT REV page, accessed with a right side key RSK and an entry for AT 3000 would be entered in the ALT AT field (see FMS.30.5)Hope this helps.

[Guest John Morgan]

Thanks Dan for your interest, I do need some help on this.Yes it did seem to me that no misentry into the MDCU should cause it to freeze up but I can assure you that it does. In respect of your comment "Altitude constraints are made from the VERT REV page" FMS 30.3 says that altitudes may be inserted by direct entry into the F-Plan. This is what I have attempted in the past without the freeze up I am currently experiencing. Having said that, I think the acceptance of the entries was somewhat erratic but I put this down to my inexperience in inputting.I have now tried amending altitudes using the Vert Rev page but in my test it was again erratic. I was successful twice but in amending the third time the freeze up occurred again.There is one point I may as well mention, you never know with these things, the flight is a short one of at most around 100 miles even including the alternate (set up for test purposes) with a cruising height of 7000 feet. There are 18500 lbs of fuel in the tanks which I would have expected to be plenty. Nevertheless I get unexpected fuel shortage messages,Best wishes, John

It shouldn't lock up regardless of user input, but still being new we probably haven't tried every wrong entry we can think of...Altitude constraints are made from the VERT REV page, accessed with a right side key RSK and an entry for AT 3000 would be entered in the ALT AT field (see FMS.30.5)Hope this helps.