Hello Captains and First Officers,after completing the two MD-11 tutorials I decided to go one more step forward making a flight from EDDF to KJFK. How can I insert NATs in the MCDU and how I can connect them with the rest of the Route. I go to the daily updated site of NATs http://pilotsweb.nas.faa.gov and I found a Track that it looks more suitable for my Atlantic crossing: BEDRA 48/20 47/30 46/40 45/50 VODOR RAFIN. The numbers I know that are co-ordinates but in what format should be entered in the FMS?Thank you all for any help

Coordinates are entered as NXXWXXX. So 48/20 would be N48W200 (I think). I just use SimRoutes to build my flight plans and just use the COROUTE function. Though kudos for learning how to manually enter the route.

The numbers I know that are co-ordinates but in what format should be entered in the FMS?Thank you all for any help

I know people get tired of the 'read the manual' comments, but it's in there, and all of the manuals are searchable PDF. Always consult the manual, as it is the best source of information on the aircraft. (FMS 100.4 answers your question - the above-mentioned format for entry is incorrect - that's only what the CDU will display, not accept - which is why you should always go to the manual first )Despite that, I'll teach you a little trick:Computers require things to be a certain way in order to accept them, so when you're looking for the way it accepts the data, look at how it presents it to you. One of the very first things you do is confirm the aircraft's position when you set up everything on the INIT page, right? On that page, it lists your current position in Lat/Lon in a specific format. It also shows you the format on every LAT REV page (where you click on a fix to give it the next fix or airway) at the top. If the computer shows it to you in that format, you can be relatively sure that the format it gives you is what it's expecting.What it's looking for is: N4744.9/E01115.0, where the DM.d (Degrees Minutes.decimal minutes) is N47 44.9 / E011 15.0, so 48/20 would be N4800.0/W02000.0.

Here is another trick: All the shortcut lat/long entries are actually listed as waypoints in the wpNavFIX.txt navdata file. For example, the first fix listed is90W70 90W70-90.000000-170.000000... 90W70 is the shortcut entry for 90 00 00 S 170 00 00 W (North and East are positive values). The only reason the shortcuts work is because they are translated by this file, which means you can add your own unique shortcuts if you wish.

Thank you all so much for your great help. Finally it works like a charm.@ scandinavian13. Yes, you are right reading the manual is a great help too but at first when i saw all these pages at first i got panicky (joking). I asked because i wanted a fast solution but on the long run, yes the manual is a must

I see your point, but in the end, despite the daunting nature of the PDFs, using CTRL+F and searching on your own will actually prove to be faster. The first post was 16 minutes after you posted your question, so it was at least 16 minutes before you got your answer. Using the search feature, it shouldn't take more than 5.Getting clarification is really what the forum is better at; deciphering the technical jargon, if you will.

This is the information that you are looking for:http://forum.avsim.net/topic/337354-custom-latlong-entry/page__p__2129824__fromsearch__1#entry2129824I have used this system to code in waypoints for flights all over the world in both the MD-11X and 747-400X. Depending on your location, the technique will be slightly different. This post will cover it all of them. Good luck!

Thank you Milton that was a great help indeed@ KennySimRoutes is a fantastic tool to create flightplans but there is a part of it that i dont understand. I go EDDF - KJFK, there is only one flightplan for this flight, I click on it, and I see a detailed flightplan with all the NAVAIDs and all the idents. The NATs part, which is somewhere in middle of the list, shows today's NAT Track the B. GOMUP - LOPVI. My question is why this Track is chosen and not the other Tracks that they look more suitable with the rest of the flightplan? If you see it on the map B. GOMUP - LOPVI is long way to the north. Normally its not more appropriate to choose a Track that is more to the south or am i wrong?Thank you in advance

Thank you Milton that was a great help indeed@ KennySimRoutes is a fantastic tool to create flightplans but there is a part of it that i dont understand. I go EDDF - KJFK, there is only one flightplan for this flight, I click on it, and I see a detailed flightplan with all the NAVAIDs and all the idents. The NATs part, which is somewhere in middle of the list, shows today's NAT Track the B. GOMUP - LOPVI. My question is why this Track is chosen and not the other Tracks that they look more suitable with the rest of the flightplan? If you see it on the map B. GOMUP - LOPVI is long way to the north. Normally its not more appropriate to choose a Track that is more to the south or am i wrong?Thank you in advance

Panos,I'm not sure on how they choose particular NATs for particular routes. Perhaps the winds are better to the north, less distance, or there is less traffic on that track. That's all I could come up with, sorry.

Hi, Kenny and Panos,sometimes the track wanted by the crew may be unavailable, or in particular the cruising level they want is unavailable (due to other traffic already assigned there), so it is a choice between taking the penalty (in terms of fuel consumption) of a lower cruise level on the desired track or the desired cruise level on a different (and perhaps slightly longer) track. FMS helps ... crews program both routes, enter the given/expected wind conditions, compare the fuel estimates given by the FMC and make their choice accordingly (... confirmed by a friend of mine who flies 767; must be very much the same with the MD11).Sigmar Stadlmeier

Hello Sigmar,thank you for your answer, with your explanation now it makes more sense