error message on b-777 fms while loading a lat long position on fix page.

[wiggy]

FE H.

For info some(?all) 777 FMC's certainly do allow a short format (5 character) naming convention for some lat/long entries, a couple of examples being:

N50 W040 coded as 5040N,

and

N70 W170 coded as 75N70


The convention over the placement of the alphabetical character is all important but my FCOM lists 5020E as being correct for N50 E020, so at first glance the OP's 7020E looks correct for N70 E020.

Edit to add:

Question for the OP: Did 7020E work OK as a waypoint on the legs page? If it did then I have no idea why you had your problem.

If it didn't then perhaps it's something to do with the fact that in the manuals this particular 5 character naming convention only comes up in the context of Oceanic Control reporting points. I may well be wrong but I recall being informed at some point that if you do enter way points in this manner the FMC doesn't construct them, it calls them up from the database (we certainly treat them as database waypoints for the purposes of route verification).

Given where N70 E020 is on the globe I wonder if my original reply in post #2 holds good and 7020E simply isn't held in the database. The answer might be found in the Nav data page.