The FMS system is such a great way to navigate in a jet, that is once you understand all the qwerks about it. From inputting, calibrating the IRUs to just setting up your route is a small pain at first, but I’m sure it’ll all come together soon enough.

You have to love that CBT (computer based training) lab that we have for the MD90 FMS system. “There are alphanumeric keys on the MCDU. You have Alpha keys on the right and the numeric keys on the left.” Seriously, that’s what it is. You can’t speed up nothing either. But you do learn a lot. It just drags quite a bit. CAPT really needs to move the MD90 CBT to Flagler.

Today was the first day that we got to sit inside the sim and actually punch in numbers and “execute” navigational commands. I got to rotate and actually even land the plane. It was an KLAX 24R Departure followed by an ILS back in. We programmed the FMS for the KLAX Loop4.Dagget route, etc, but didn’t really need to fly the path so we just turned around. Landing was pretty neat, but once I disengaged the autopilot, the corrections that I made were too much. I wasn’t on centerline and I started to oscillate a little back and forth. All of this plus the fact that I was below glideslope the entire time. The landing was that smooth, but I got it down without a bunch of shaking going on. I’m sure that it’ll get better with practice. I didn’t red screen the thing, so, so far so good! I can’t wait to actually learn more about flying this airplane.

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