Do I set up the fms to be at 11,000 at 40nm from airport to comply with radar contact controllers? I obviously cant do it like i do in the NGX, any hints? If I am not on a star this is problematic.

 

Thanks

 

Marc

Do I set up the fms to be at 11,000 at 40nm from airport to comply with radar contact controllers?

 

Identifier (waypoint, VOR, airport) slash +/- the distance from or to the identifier and then insert that to the identifier's line on the F-PLN page and then set the altitude for climb or descent. For example, I'm told to be at FL290 in a climb at 30 miles from they ORD VOR. I'd go to the F-PLN page and type in "ORD/-40. Then I would type in /290. Then I would tell the FMS is in a climb. It's in the FMS manual (FMS.100.1-2 and FMS.30.3).

This is why I hate RC...

While it's technically not incorrect, I'd consider it to be poor form on the part of a controller to give a command like that. You only hear it very rarely in the real ATC system, yet RC4 give it all the time.

 

More correct versions are descents to an altitude with no position constraints (e.g. "Descend and maintain 11,000"), or descents with a crossing restriction along your route (e.g. "Descend to cross DRUZZ at 11,000").

That is correct, drives me nuts as well, very unrealistic. But it is the only thing I have to work with. I understand how to create a PBD waypoint the problem is is figuring out what is 40nm from the airport since this is what rc gives and translating that into PBD fix from something else. If you are going strait to the airport this is easy but if you have close in interveening waypoints with coarse changes this is very difficult and would not be a clearance you would get in the real world. In the NGX the method is simple but in the MD11 there is just to many mental gyrations. I will go back to the distancy x 3 = alt and rod=gs/2x100. Whew!