
MCDU Data & Initialization A
We’re now entering a full flight from one airport to another using the Multifunction-Control-Display-Unit (MCDU). If you already set up a flight plan with the navigation menu you can skip a lot of the following steps. We’ve highlighted the necessary steps in bold text.
Note - You can cheat and get enter useful values by double clicking the line select key next to empty field.
- Select the MCDU MENU page if not already displayed by pressing the MCDU MENU button on the MCDU
- Select FMGC by pressing the line select 1L
- The aircraft status page is displayed
In the real aircraft we’d now have to check if the navigation database is still up to date.
- Press the INIT button to display the initialization page
- Enter the airport ICAO codes for your route. We’re at Frankfurt and want to fly to London Heathrow so we insert “EDDF/EGLL”
- Enter an alternate airport identifier if we need to divert, e.g. “EGKK”
- Enter the flight number if this is a scheduled flight
- Enter a cost index of 20 or as desired. A higher number increases the cruise speed which reduces the flight time at the cost of higher fuel burn. The minimal fuel burn is achieved with a cost index of zero
- Enter a cruise altitude for the flight, e.g. 35000 for FL350