MCDU Pages Tour

Step-by-step: MCDU Pages Tour

1. You start on INIT. Navigate to F-PLN to see where the flight plan lives.

   F-PLN (Flight Plan) is where you see the actual route — every waypoint, every leg, every constraint. After INIT, this is the page you spend the most time on. The lateral path of the flight is built and edited here.

2. Go to the PERF page. PERF holds takeoff and landing performance values.

   PERF is split internally — TAKEOFF, CLB, CRZ, DES, APPR, GO-AROUND. The page shifts automatically as the flight progresses. Pre-flight, you only fill in TAKEOFF and APPR; the others fill themselves in flight.

3. Go to the RAD NAV page. This is where you tune navigation radios.

   RAD NAV holds the two VOR receivers and the two ILS receivers. The FMS auto-tunes both sides during flight, but you can override manually for ATC requests, lost-comm procedures, or to back up the auto-tune on a critical approach.

4. Open the PROG page. PROG is the in-flight situational page.

   PROG is the "where am I, how am I doing" page in cruise. Live cruise level, recommended max altitude, distance to destination, and predicted fuel/time at destination all appear here. Pilots reference it constantly during long cruise legs.

5. Return to the INIT page to complete the tour.

   The MCDU has more pages than these five — FUEL PRED, SEC F-PLN, DATA, MCDU MENU, ATC COMM, DIR — but you can fly a complete flight using just the five you have just toured. Master these first; the others are extensions.