Brain Potter
23rd Nov 2005, 14:42
A recent training trip has posed the following question.
You are intending to fly on a random track in the North Atlantic MNPS and flight plan accordingly. You insert the waypoints in accorcordance with the Master Document (Jetplan) and cross check the tracks and distances for each leg in accordance with the North Atlantic Operations Manual.
However, once airborne you are cleared for a different track and so insert and check the new waypoints. The North Atlantic Operations Manual suggests that you should now prepare a new Master Document using a blank proforma and transcribe the tracks and distances from a reference source.
What is the reference source?
If you copy them from the FMS you are invalidating the whole point of checking T&D at turning points. The requirement to check T&D at turning points is to cross check the FMS produced T&D with an independent source thus highlighting any waypoint insertion error. The Jeppesen (or similar) database would be the independent source whilst flying the flight planned route. But what about re-routes? My company used to provide a booklet of Tracks and Distance for this purpose. It contained all the NAT waypoints with the T&D information for consecutive points. This document is now defunct so I can see no other way of obtaining independent information apart from plotting and measuring from a chart.
What do other operators do?
BP
You are intending to fly on a random track in the North Atlantic MNPS and flight plan accordingly. You insert the waypoints in accorcordance with the Master Document (Jetplan) and cross check the tracks and distances for each leg in accordance with the North Atlantic Operations Manual.
However, once airborne you are cleared for a different track and so insert and check the new waypoints. The North Atlantic Operations Manual suggests that you should now prepare a new Master Document using a blank proforma and transcribe the tracks and distances from a reference source.
What is the reference source?
If you copy them from the FMS you are invalidating the whole point of checking T&D at turning points. The requirement to check T&D at turning points is to cross check the FMS produced T&D with an independent source thus highlighting any waypoint insertion error. The Jeppesen (or similar) database would be the independent source whilst flying the flight planned route. But what about re-routes? My company used to provide a booklet of Tracks and Distance for this purpose. It contained all the NAT waypoints with the T&D information for consecutive points. This document is now defunct so I can see no other way of obtaining independent information apart from plotting and measuring from a chart.
What do other operators do?
BP