My apologies if this isn't the appropriate forum to ask this question. I pondered where the best fit would be, and felt this might net me the best response.

 

I am enjoying FeelThere\Wilco's ERJ170/190 Regional Jet series. I'm using what documentation and tutorials I have to try and master a flawless flight between departure and arrival. I have a question about interpreting FMS flight plan entry and using the autopilot with said information.

 

I can enter a flight plan and undertand the basic logic behind what I see. However, I get a bit confused when I add a departure SID. Attached is a capture of my FMC after I inserted the KISSR1 SID out of Norfolk International (KORF).

 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

I would be very appreciative of anyone that would be ale to explain what I am seeing. Obviously RW05 is the departure runway, 47^o I assume refers to the runway heading. But I cannot relate to:

"F    0.9NM",

"1435^ CLB" ,

"*ALT03  00+00"

"---/0430A"

"Fly 047^o or as assigned"

 

Is there any enhancement to this inserted SID that I need to manually provide to make it effective?

I know I have to remove the ">> DISCONTINUITY <<". Do do so, I have had to delete the "Fly 047^o or as assigned" entry at LSK 3L. Not sure if this is right.

 

So, once the SID is inserted, and flight plan is activated, will the autopilot fly it? At what point would I activate it? What needs to be activated ... NAV? VNAV? ALT? (Still rusty on the autopilot).

 

Before i discovered that I can add the SID, I would manually fly the departure, maintaining runway heading and climbing to 4000' (AP > HDG 047 > VNAV > Alt 4000) before adjusting the heading to intercept the NAV to FORTS and climbing to filed altitude.

 

Thank you in advance for your patience.

Here's the chart:

http://skyvector.com/files/tpp/1307/pdf/00291KISRR.PDF

 

It's not even really a SID... all it is a standardized procedure so you know what to do when cleared for takeoff.  A lot of airports have them.  You guessed the first part Heading 047.  On your FMS the 0430A probably means the FMS will climb at or above 430 ft .9 mile from the runway.

 

For that procedure I'd just do a VS climb to 4000 and use HDG SEL or HOLD on a 047... expect vectors to assigned course shortly after takeoff.

 

edIt: I sound funny above.... it's a SID of course but it's not very involved.  It's basically fly runway heading and climb and maintain 4000, then expect on course later...

Or if no ATC. Climb intitial hdg then enter direct forts. If Im not using ATC I would put Forts in the assigned position.

Ok... this is where reading documentation helps a bit... but, not so much. LOL

 

*ALT03 - it's a special waypoint that's representing a calculated lat/lon based on how how long the aircraft is expected to take to get at or above the altitude restriction.  HOWEVER, the 'F' in reverse indicates this waypoint is a 'fly-over' waypoint which means you MUST fly over the waypoint before the FMS will sequence to the next waypoint.

 

FLY 047* OR AS ASSIGNED - This is what's called a manual sequence waypoint.  It provides a heading and that's it.  Once it's the active waypoint the FMS ceases waypoint sequencing.

 

Your discontinuity is because of the manual sequence waypoint.  You can not delete a discontinuity if the last waypoint in a departure procedure is a manual sequence waypoint.

 

How you would fly this departure procedure is thus:

 

Take off, fly runway heading until passing over *ALT03, then continue on runway heading or as directed by ATC until cleared to continue on your flight plan.  If, as example, they gave you a clearance to go direct to FORTS... then simply select the FORTS waypoint and place it in the active waypoint position on the screen.  Your aircraft will then continue onward.

My apologies for failing to reply in the wrong format ...

 

Thank you folks ... appreciate your time. From what I gather, having this in the FMS really has no benefit, other than reference information. One would still be having to semi-automatically control the heading and altitude through departure to the first fix anyway.

Always remember that you are flying the airplane, the automatics are just tools to ease the workload. Don't let the plane get ahead of you. Always read the charts before you fly a procedure. Once you have read the chart it's usually obvious what the FMS data means. Sometimes the data from Navigraph is faulty, and if you rely entirely on the automatics to fly a procedure then you might end up not flying the procedure at all.

I think you may find that even with more detailed SIDs that the reality is that you may not fly it exactly as published depending on traffic, ATC needs, etc. Two real-world examples:

The HUBEE2 departure from KSAT (http://skyvector.com/files/tpp/1307/pdf/00369HUBEE.PDF) starts at CHURN - and the narrative states to expect vectors to CHURN. But, it is not unusual to be cleared direct ERRAD (BTW - pronouced E-rad), bypassing CHURN alltogether (common when departing Rwy 12R).

Similarly on the ALISS2 departure (http://skyvector.com/files/tpp/1307/pdf/00369ALISS.PDF) being cleard direct TATAR instead of going to TREVA is not unusual. (And, just to stay in the funky pronunciation mode - its pronounced like the slang for potato - 'tater')