When flying and the ATC changes your approach rwy, the MCDU setup expects you to choose the arrival and approach again. After doing that, the autopilot wants to loop me back to the start of the arrival. I expect if I made the change before passing the arrival all would be ok; however, often the instruction comes after passing that point. What’s the best way to handle this change and continue the flight?
The best way? Ignore ATC. It’s horrible.
Yeah I realize the default ATC isn’t perfect so I was using FShud as the controller. FShud changed the runway just after I crossed the start of the arrival. I then found it difficult to change the arrival runway in the MCDU. Thought I could get some flying advice here.
program a secondary flight plan with a different STAR at the beginning of the flight
This situation can definitely happen if ATC changes the runway or approach after you’ve passed the final waypoint (typically the “arrival” transition point in the STAR). The MCDU in many add-ons (like Inibuilds A320) isn’t always happy with route changes mid-way unless you catch them early.
What I usually do is:
- Wait for ATC’s instruction first before touching the MCDU.
- If the new runway/approach is assigned late, I manually delete any discontinuities and rebuild the approach path using the MCDU’s DIR-TO or SEC F-PLN features.
- Optionally, pre-load a secondary flight plan (with a different STAR/runway) just in case ATC changes it — especially at busy airports or during variable winds.
FSHud will keep vectoring you correctly regardless of how clean your MCDU looks — but having it synced helps with autopilot tracking and situational awareness.