Julian,
I apologise in advance if this gets a bit incoherent due to alchohol intake but here goes.
Obviously I don't know the exact type of aircraft/FMS concerned, but I would have thought that if the FD/FMS is in heading mode it is easy enough to just set the heading bug or enter a command heading to allow for wind, if the aircraft has been instructed to maintain runway centreline to 3 DME. However, if they have got the drift wrong then 3 DME at about 180kts doesn't give much time to correct it and regain track - and on this occasion it would seem to be very wrong as 1 mile after 3 miles along track is about 20 degrees track error ( if I can still work out the 1:60 rule after a bottle of red wine!).
If they consistantly have problems then perhaps they should enter a stored waypoint which could be based ( making a wild stab at your possible location ) on the I-BTS or I-BON DME with runway QDR as the bearing and 3 miles as the distance from the reference waypoint ( which would be the threshold of the reciprocal runway to that used for take-off if you follow me ). Entering this as the first waypoint of a route would take the aircraft to three miles on the runway centreline before turning it whichever way it has to go to join the airway system, and if they took off with the FD selected to FMS NAV mode or the equivalent then they would have steering commands ( either hand flown or with autopilot ) as soon as the wheels were off the ground.
Obviously depends on the limitations of the equipment but would certainly work on the aircraft I fly ( although the 5 degrees on the heading bug for wind would seem the easier option I must admit ).
Last edited by excrab; 22nd May 2002 at 20:09.