Originally Posted by
Worldguy
You need to put the restriction in as "/s300" at the point prior to 50W to keep you from climbing, and put the "/f320" on the 50W waypoint. If the point prior to 50W is too soon to climb, you have to create and artificial point ex> "50W/-20" or something to that effect.
WG
Good explanation. You have to put /S the level you are at on the vert rev to tell the FMS that you want to cross that point at that level. After you pass that the aircraft will climb to the level in the FCP. Caution!! If you put /300 instead of /S300 the FMS will start a slow descent to your destination. Look at your PROG page and the 35.0 landing fuel may have turned into 3.0.
There are times when you put the step climb in correctly it still wants to climb right away. It should not work that way, but it happens on occasion.
The other way the Step climb works is if for example your westbound from Paris and your planned crossing LVL is F320 but the FMS shows a climb 20 minutes after the entry point. In that case put the /S320 at the entry point and the aircraft will climb to cross that point level. You are just forcing it to climb before the FMS figures you should. If you are really too heavy the FMS will tell you so.