KLAX → KJFK Transcon (J146)

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📍 Route: KLAX → KJFK via J146⏱ ~10 minutes📊 11 steps🎓 Line Flying

Los Angeles to New York on the 737: RTE, a LAX departure, J146 across the country, and a JFK arrival.

What this scenario covers

The transcon chains every skill in the catalogue — route entry, procedure selection at both ends, and a long airway inserted as a via/to pair on RTE. J146 is real FAA jet route data, so the entry behaves exactly as it does on the line.

The SID you choose becomes the first line of RTE 2, and the airway after it has to contain the fix that line ends at. Most Los Angeles departures end off J146, so the route joins it at DAG with a DIRECT line first; type J146 straight after the SID and the box answers INVALID ENTRY.

It is also the scenario where the difference between RTE and LEGS matters most. RTE says what you asked for; LEGS shows the waypoints the FMC actually built, and on a route this long, scrolling it is the only way to know.

How it applies in flight ops

A five-hour domestic sector affords a proper pre-flight: load, cross-check against the OFP, brief, execute. Longer flights are not more difficult to program; they simply have more to check.

The arrival into JFK carries constraints that shape the entire descent, and loading it at the gate is what lets VNAV build a realistic path from top of descent instead of rebuilding it on the way down.

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Everything about this scenario is on this page, steps included — reading it costs nothing and always will. What Premium adds is doing it: the CDU validates every entry as you make it, and tells you when an entry was accepted but wrong.

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Step-by-step: KLAX → KJFK Transcon (J146)

Open the RTE page. Enter ORIGIN KLAX (1L) and DEST KJFK (1R).
KLAX = Los Angeles, KJFK = New York Kennedy. Real airline OFPs quote 4-letter ICAO codes (not 3-letter IATA like LAX/JFK) for navigation systems.
Enter ORIGIN KLAX. Type KLAX and press 1L.
KLAX is the FMC's anchor for departure procedures and runway selection. Without a valid origin, the DEP/ARR page won't list any SIDs.
Enter DEST KJFK. Type KJFK and press 1R.
KJFK is the anchor for the arrival side — STARs and runway selection pull from the destination.
Open PERF INIT and set CRZ ALT FL350. Type 350 and press 1R.
Eastbound (course 000-179°) above FL290 uses odd thousands per ICAO semicircular rule: FL310 / FL330 / FL350 / FL370. KLAX→KJFK is roughly course 080° — eastbound. FL350 is a sweet spot for transcons.
Set COST INDEX 80 — typical transcon airline value. Type 80 and press 5L.
CI 80 is on the higher end — used when on-time arrival matters more than fuel savings (typical for transcon morning departures hitting hub connection banks).
Open DEP/ARR and select a KLAX SID. Press <DEP on the KLAX row, then the LSK beside the SID you want.
The KLAX SIDs in this trainer come from the FAA's coded procedure data (CIFP) — the same source the Airbus trainer uses, and the FAA does not code every departure an airport publishes. GARDY, DOTSS, CHATY and SXC8, the Catalina departure out over the SXC VORTAC, are among them. Selecting one stores its identifier as the active SID.
Airways are entered on the RTE page. Press RTE, then 6L to open RTE 2. Line 1 now shows your SID and the fix it ends at. J146 has to be joined at a fix on it: type DAG and press 2R.
An airway must contain the TO waypoint of the line before it. The 737 FCOM (11.40.17) lists "airways and company routes which do not contain the TO waypoint of the previous line" as invalid VIA entries, answered with INVALID ENTRY. Most KLAX departures end at a fix that is not on J146: SXC8 ends at SXC, CHATY5 at CHATY. J146 starts at the LAX VOR and runs DAG, MISEN, CLARR, LAS, so the route reaches it at DAG (Daggett) first. A waypoint typed in the TO column with no airway in VIA is a DIRECT leg, which the FCOM says is how DIRECT is normally entered.
Now the airway: type J146 and press 3L to stage it in the VIA column of line 3.
J146 is a real FAA jet route from the LAX VOR east to JFK, passing LAS (Las Vegas), the Plains and the Midwest. On the real 737 the airway goes in the VIA column of the RTE page (not LEGS); staging it puts it on the page as a pending change, with the title reading MOD.
Stage the TO waypoint for the airway: type LAS and press 3R (the TO column).
The TO waypoint anchors how far along the airway you want to follow. LAS, the Las Vegas VORTAC, is the third fix along J146 after DAG (MISEN, CLARR, then LAS), about 220 nm from Los Angeles. It marks the end of the climb-out and the start of the eastbound enroute phase.
Press EXEC* (6R) to commit the DIRECT leg and the airway together.
EXEC* finalises the modification: DIRECT DAG and J146 to LAS join the route behind the SID. On a real FMC the route would now include every fix along J146 from DAG to LAS; the trainer notes the commit and moves on. On the real aircraft, the magenta path on the ND would show the airway across the western US.
Return to DEP/ARR and select a KJFK STAR. Press ARR> on the KJFK row, then the LSK beside the STAR you want.
KJFK STARs (CAMRN, PARCH, PAWLN, PUCKY, etc.) come from the FAA's coded procedure data (CIFP). CAMRN is the most-used arrival from the west — most real LAX→JFK routings end on CAMRN, transitioning to the JFK 31 ILS feeder.

What to take away

Airways go on RTE as a via/to pair — airway, then exit waypoint.
An airway must contain the TO of the line before it; a DIRECT line gets you onto it.
Scroll LEGS on a long route; RTE alone does not show what was built.
Arrival constraints shape the descent path — load them early.
Time to program is time to cross-check, not a reason to skip it.

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