It'll still intercept final in NAV though!

 

AND it'll make better wind corrections in NAV.








.

 

/SF300 works too, plus I think of it as /SF300 (step from) FL300. That way you know that it will commence the step beyond the point you just entered. For example, if you needed to be level at 320 by 5050N the FMC could be set up like this:

CARPE .82/SF300
5050N .82/ 320

You could then safely select 320 in the GCP.

I think this is all correct; it is much easier in the -400...

 

I've seen more than one guy dick it up trying to intercept in nav. When you're in close and on vectors, if you arm nav with any turn rate going it'll go to a 30 deg intercept instead of holding your heading to intercept. Then you gotta grab the heading bug and pull it, and somewhere in there you forget to arm the loc. I've seen it happen more than once....

 

Trying to have the A/P fly the Loc at 30 miles out is kinda bad. I prefer the Nav mode myself. Just have to stay on top of what your doing....

PAst....

 

One of my FOs a couple trips back did something similar. Landing north we were vectored to intercept the LOC from the west (UJM arrival) for ILS 36R. Wind was about 50kts at 2000ft from the SW and he relied solely on LOC capture and blew right through the LOC with the ILS armed, then HDG SEL to expedite intercept. Kicked himself out of LOC and GS capture with the big winds pushing us above the GS. Got on GS at 1000ft 5kts fast, but stable, and the fought to stay on GS until we got a big wind shift, from a SW wind to a N wind, at about 300-200 ft. Prior to descent I reminded him that GAs are free and since it was a slow Sat night/Sun morning, I let him go. He was workin'!! We talked on the bus about the option of using NAV to start the capture then arming LOC, or ILS if cleared, or kicking it AP off and hand flying.

 

Capt. Mark

I don't know anyone who thinks the Airbus FMS is better than the MD's or the Boeings. At UPS most guys transitioning from the 75's and 76's are very unhappy with the Bus's system. Flying a C-17, I can relate to the convuluted hoop jumping you have to do to get the MD-11 to do what you want. Douglas may have built a strong jet but the engineers that designed the FMS and auto-flight were either smoking crack or never actually flew a real aircraft.....maybe flight simulator...not enough pilot input into the design of the systems.

 

How about this one:

I'm pretty sure that we were taught that if you were in Nav on a leg coincident with your secondary flight plan, then you could activate the secondary without exiting Nav. This certainly isn't the case, at least some of the time. Anybody know if it ever works that way, what the parameters are to make it work that way, or am I just incorrect in my memory of how it is supposed to work?

Thanks!

 

OTOH, the Escargot is slow enough that you have plenty of time to reflect (nay, meditate) on what the FMS is doing, and fix any potential errors.

 

that was just a solution to the MD's problems...then the bus has it's own set of problems...that's all..little humor..very little i guess...