There’s a Southwest B737 pilot on YT (channel name “Flying with Big Ern”) that’s pretty fun to watch. Company policy (and probably ATA pilot union agreements) prohibit him from showing flying the plane, but there’s a lot in there about company practices, programming the FMC, general life of a pilot stuff).
About 18 months ago, he and a partner bought a Cirrus and there are a few videos on his channel of him flying it: the delivery flight; maintaining proficiency; a trip to take his daughter up to college; etc.
1 Like
Is ther a 5 character limit on waypoints that can be entered in the FMC? For example, it will not accept the valid waypoint FOWIND when entered in the keypad but accepts it when imported from simbrief. It would accept keypad entry of the valid 5 character waypoint MILBEC. This issue comes up when following the PMDG tutorial included with the aircraft documentation. If this is true why would the tutorial use a route that includes a 6 character waypoint ???
All waypoints are limited to 5 characters maximum. It’s a nav database thing as much as an FMC limitation.
I’ve just looked at the tutorial and the waypoints you mention are actually written as FOWND and MLBEC, which complies with the 5 character maximum.
You’re misspelling the waypoints:
^That.
I just looked in the tutorial file and it’s FOWND, at least on the latest build (they did state they corrected some errors in the documentation.)
ps I you want a bit of a laugh have a look at the RAZRR 4 and the BRIXX 3 arrivals into KSJC. Very imaginative waypoint naming 
The MLBEC point into KSFO is a continuation of the points on the BRIXX arrival for KSJC, all of them situated over wine country.
In the PMDG 737 Tutorial FMC entry of the route between KPDX and KSFO
MINNE5 FAMUK Q3 FOWIND MILBEC
BDEGA3 is described. However the FMC does not accept keypad entry of FOWIND which does appear on Q3 in navigraoh charts. However if this sane route is imported from simbrief there seems to be no problem.
Waypoints all over the US are named like that - regionally. The KBNA arrivals are CHSNE (Kenny Chesney), PASLY (Brad Paisley), RYYMN (Ryman Auditorium), and SWFFT (Taylor Swift). Waypoints include stuff like LRETA (Loretta Lynn); JCKSN (Alan Jackson), GRRTH (Garth Brooks). One of the common SID waypoints is BGDDY (Big Daddy, lol).
Maybe we can open a thread for our favorite waypoints. NIMOY near KBOS is a personal favorite.
See my earlier post. You are misspelling FOWND (you are inserting an extra “i” in the waypoint).
Yeah, as I said (and as the tutorial now shows) they’re incorrect. The spelling I put in the post you quoted is correct.
@LameLefty Many countries do it, but the US does it well. There are some corkers out there!
Oh for heavens sake! Thanks for pointing that out! Yes I checked the simbrief route which has FOWND not FOWIND. My eyes hae gone bleary from staring to long.
Appreciate the reply! Just let me know the model, i´m buying! 
And please, keep yourself around, people like you that is a professional and take your time to share your knowlegment on a forum that most are just amateurs having fun is just awesome.
Wish i could sit down and have a coffee with a professional like you one day.
Take care! Cheers from Brazil!
1 Like
This is one reason for airline pilots to retire at 65. I kept seeing FOWIND!
3 Likes
I get it. I haven’t made that particular typo, but I have made others. To that point, sometimes the flight plan imported from Simbrief omits waypoints once it’s in the 737 FMC (the routes I’ve been flying between Burbank and Las Vegas, for instance). So for those routes I flew yesterday, I had to add several waypoints each time and yeah, it’s easy to glance quickly and misread something!
Not good. Haven’t had time to dig deeper. I was going to try uninstalling add ons, but maybe I’ll switch aircraft for a while instead. Im using latest nvidia drivers, but they were fine with previous version of 737.
Must admit i only flew it twice before the update but i completed both flights.
1 Like
I have also seen missing waypoints when importing simbtief flightplans to the FBW A320 MCDU. If you can add them back manually they must be in the sims navdata so I don’t understand why they went missing.
Sry oft,
really i’m very curious who is this not normal who can create that waypoint name that can’t be said as basically. I expect name everytime be said normally without problems, phonetically ok, then spelled if required… MLBEC ooooh boy… but understand f.ex. to arrival specific names.
