FMS Centric Calculations
The FMS presumes there is intent to fly the flight plan as created. All deviation data, most data block data and the times to go and fuel calculations are all based on that assumption.
CREATING A NEW FLIGHT PLAN
The first time the “Flight Plan” tab of the FMS page is accessed following power-on, an empty flight plan page is presented with the origin waypoint pre-populated. The origin will be the closest airport to the current GPS position, or the airport from the previous power down if GPS position has not locked on yet. In almost every case, your hand can stay on the bottom right IFD knob. Through a combination of pushes and turns, you can enter the entire flight plan.
Geofill™
is a geographic-based prediction algorithm that significantly reduces the number of pilot actions for entering waypoints. Usually after the first character entry, the system uses existing characters to determine the closest, and most likely, waypoint based on your geographic position or existing flight plan.
Airways and Flight Plan Creation
The FMS can use published airways in its database to quickly build long flight plans with few keystrokes. When a flight plan waypoint is a valid airway entry or exit point, the list of available airways is presented in a drop down box. The list is quickly scrolled to the desired exit point and then all intermediate intersections along that airway are automatically populated into the flight plan.
SELECTING A DEPARTURE
If a published departure exists for the origin/departure airfield, then a drop down list of available departure procedures can be displayed by using the inner ring of the bottom right IFD knob to highlight the departure procedure window for that origin/departure airfield and pushing in that knob.
SAVING/NAMING A FLIGHT PLAN
From the Route tab of the FMS page, the current route, labeled Current Route, will be highlighted in magenta. If a valid origin and destination have been created in the flight plan (e.g. “KBED – CYQI”), the title will include these. To edit the name of a flight plan, use the outer ring of the bottom right bezel knob. Scroll up or down the route list until the desired flight plan is highlighted by a surround cursor. By pushing the knob, the selected route will load and the route name field will be shown in reverse video. Touch the reverse highlighted name field or push the bottom right IFD knob to generate a virtual keyboard with which to type the desired name. To accept the new route name press either the “ENTR” bezel key or the Enter button