A310 Simth FMS Nav. database update

[mugal2000]

Hi,

All A310 guys your assistance is needed here, any idea of where and whom to contact to get Smith type FMS database update for A310. As Smith is no more supporting this type of legacy FMS.
Thanks in advance.

[safelife]

The Fokker 100 uses exactly the same FMS, maybe you can ask Fokker Services for assistance. Or airbus...

[Chris Scott]

Afraid I'm unable to help, but can someone tell me if Smiths ever incorporated VNAV into their FMS for the A310?

My airline, BCAL, had two A310-200s from 1984-86 (they ended up in Tripoli...). Our Smiths FMS was in the minority on A310s, most airlines having Sperry. It was a very good piece of kit for its day, but in 1986 its VNAV mode was still being developed, whereas the Sperry FMS already had it, IIRC. I think Smiths's lack of resources clinched Airbus's decision to offer only the Sperry-Honeywell FMGS on the A320.

[tubby linton]

Chris, we had the Smiths fms in our A306 and the mode was known as Profile.It would only allow one altitude constraint and when it reached the descent point it commenced a 285kt descent at idle thrust. Keeping it on the path was down to you by varying thrust. The prediction of whether you were going to be high or low at the constraint was shown as long or short but was quite accurate. There was no development in the 17 years we had it ,and the airline binned it a few years ago for the Sperry.I remember being told that the Smiths boffins all went to Honeywell to improve their fms.
The Sperry we have now ignores all of the altitude constraints in the fms on departure and it flies quite a crude descent path. Invariably it will sit about 10k slow of the descent speed and if you make it recompute the path and it realises it is low it will try and climb the aircraft to meet the path!The majority of my colleagues rely on LVL/CH or V/S.

[Chris Scott]

Thanks tubby,

Pity about Smiths. Which aircrasft's Sperry FMS are you referring to now? The A320's VNAV was pretty good in my day, but a lot of us still preferred to calculate our own TOD points. (Partly for fun, and partly because we often got a better result.)

[tubby linton]

I was referring to the Sperry designed for the A306/310 family. This was the grand-dad to the one in the 320 that became Honeywell.