MCDU Flight Planning Issue

Hi all. I just bought the A330 this week and I like it so far. I'm new to the Airbus so it's a bit of a learning curve, so the issue I'm going to ask about is most likely user error.

Yesterday I attempted a flight from LAX to BOS on VATSIM. When I got to the steps of programming the route into the MCDU, I started with the departure and arrival airports, entered the waypoints I'd be using, but I left the departure runway and SID till after I received clearance, and I did not enter an expected approach into Boston (though I did enter the STAR as the JFUND2 via PONCT). I did not enter the departure runway or SID because I needed to get my clearance from ATC to know which runway I'd be taking off from, which would dictate which SID waypoints would be used.

I then continued to prep the aircraft, and eventually called ATC and got my clearance. I went back to the MCDU, selected KLAX and entered the departure runway assigned to me, and then the SID I was scheduled to fly.

After inserting those items into the flight plan I had a route discontinuity (which I expected), but for some reason it showed the first waypoint after the termination of my SID as KBOS, and then all the waypoints I had entered as my flight plan. I I cleared the disco by removing KBOS, not expected it to cause an issue.

I took off from LAX and flew the route as scheduled without issue, until I got to a point where I wanted to enter the expected STAR and arrival runway at KBOS. The last waypoint in the flight plan was PONCT, which is the beginning of the STAR.

But while the MCDU knew that the arrival airport was KBOS, I could not select it to enter the STAR or expected approach. I tried every method I could think of but no matter what I did KBOS was not selectable.

I finally had to enter all the STAR waypoints manually, including specifying the required altitude and speed restrictions, and I the only way I could tell the aircraft what approach I was using was to tune the NAV radios and set the CRS.

So what did I do wrong? My assumption is that I should have entered the departure runway and SID, my STAR, and based off METAR/TAF guessed what runway I might be landing on, all during the initial input of the flight plan? If I had to change any of this info, either at the departure end or the arrival end I would have just selected the relevant airport and made the change?

Thanks in advance. I tried not to be TOO long winded. :)

Comments

  • Just a clarification, during the initial flight planning stage I did tell the MCDU that I'd be using the JFUND2, but I did not select a runway, and when I cleared the DISCO, thereby removing KBOS, the MCDU erased all the STAR waypoints after PONCT. That's why I had to enter them all manually at a later stage during the fight.
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