STARS and Decent Profile Issues

[Michael427 0]

Hello, I am somewhat new to the MD-11, however have a good working knowalage. I am having one issue with the FMC. My VA has pre made routes that we must fly, however, they have already included a SID and STAR to the route. After countles hours of going through manules and trial and error, I am looking for help on here.When a SID is a part of the flight plan, how do you add a takeoff runway to the sid without having to an a SID.The other problem is the STAR, with it already being put in the plan from the start, and being part of the actual plan itself, how do u add a runway and approach to it. The problem I am running into is that my flight plan, after putting in the start, becomes a mess, Ill fly over the airport, make a couple wierd turns, than go on approach. And because of this issue, or so I think, when i reach the top of decent, it will not decend in profile mode, I have to VS to go down, and I always overshoot the airport.Any help would be great. Thanks

[sandpatch 9]

I have never had a co-route with SID and STARs but I have played a lot with the MCDU. On the takeoff issue I guess that you simply can open the first waypoint, press SID and select a runway and nothing else. Insert it and then remove the waypoints that pop up in the F-pln page. After that check it with the plan mode just to be sure.About the STAR it takes a lot of troubleshooting. I would guess that the easiest way is to simply remove the VA inserted STAR by deleting all waypoints and then add the STAR of your choice.I am 2000 Km from my computer so I can't test it myself but it may work with simply adding the runway to the last waypoint and deleting any interruptions. Also recheck the route on the Navigation display.I do not know how strict you VA is about the route but you can create your own by using http://www.simroutes...ParseRoute.aspx. With that you can make your route and export is as a PMDG route file.Having to play around with SIDs is quite annoying but key is to check that route makes sense. If you have the "route line" taking of from the runway and turning to the destination and going back to your takeoff point something is messed up.I am pretty sure that you knew this but as far as I know this is the only way to fix the problem.Manfred

[Michael427 0]

Thanks Manfred, I will try this. My main problem is the profile decent though, when I delete the VA's waypoints, it must be messing up the Vnav. I only have this problem on one of the five VA flights that I make with the MD-11.Michael F.

[sandpatch 9]

The Prof (vnav) is constantly recalculated when you change Nav (lnav) but I usually have the overshooting problem too. What helps is if you enter very accurate wind predictions at different altitudes. As far as I remember it is perf -> next page (if you are in cruise mode) -> forecast and then you can enter a couple of wind speeds at different altitudes. Sometimes that isn't enough either and I have to manually make the aircraft descend as fast as possible by pulling the altitude knob on the MCP. On the perf descend page you can accurately see how many feet above or under the "perfect profile" and most important, see if you catching it up.One thing worth mentioning is that you can not via the F-pln (legs) page force the aircraft to overfly a waypoint. All waypoints are "fly by" which means that if you have a U-turn somewhere in your flight plan the MD11 will shortcut (up to 2 nm) the route and will suddenly come in way to high. You can "trick" the system by for example making two waypoints after each other or simply press the heading knob to keep the heading and then select a new heading in the new direction.There is one way the aircraft will overfly and that is if it already is programmed in the STAR from the beginning which I am not sure that your VA has that. You will then see a triangle in front of the waypoint on the F-pln page. There aircraft can also be forced to turn left or right by having an arrow in corresponding direction in front of the waypoint.I hope that this helps you out. If would suggest that you download smartcockpits FMS manual which I find easier to read than PMDGs http://www.smartcock...1/systems/0010/. The other documents on their page are also good and definitely worth a quick look.Happy flyingManfred