Boeing 737-800 - 32 Flight Management Computer; FMC Databases

737 Flight Crew Operations Manual
Flight Management, Navigation Chapter 11
Flight Management Computer Section 32
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D6-27370-866-EGP 11.32.1
32 Flight Management ComputerFlight Management ComputerFile Highlight
FMC Databases
The FMC contains two databases:
• performance database
• navigation database.
The performance database eliminates the need for the flight crew to refer to a
performance manual during flight, and provides the FMC with the information
required to calculate pitch and thrust commands. All information normally
required can be displayed on the CDU. The database includes:
• airplane drag and engine characteristics
• maximum and optimum altitudes
• maximum and minimum speeds.
Maintenance personnel can refine the database by entering correction factors for
drag and fuel flow.
The navigation database includes most information normally determined by
referring to navigation charts. This information can be displayed on the CDU or
navigation display. The database contains:
• the location of VHF navigation aids
• waypoints
• airports
•runways
• other airline selected information, such as SIDs, STARs, approaches,
and company routes.
If the permanent database does not contain all of the required flight plan data,
additional airports, navaids, and waypoints can be defined by the crew and stored
in either a supplemental or a temporary navigation database. Use of these
additional databases provides world–wide navigational capability, with the crew
manually entering desired data into the FMC via various CDU pages. Information
in the supplemental navigation database is stored indefinitely, requiring specific
crew action for erasure; the temporary navigation database is automatically erased
at flight completion.
The supplemental and temporary databases share storage capacity for forty
navaids and six airports, the entries being stored in either database on a first come,
first served basis. For the waypoint category, exclusive storage is reserved in the
temporary database for twenty entries (including those created on the RTE or RTE
LEGS pages). An additional twenty waypoints (up to a maximum of forty) can be
stored in either the temporary or supplemental database on a first come, first
served basis.
September 28, 2006