An md-88 captain; new to the airplane; had difficulty programming the FMS for a change in their arri...

Attributes
ACN	1046325
Time
Date	201210
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ATL.Airport
State Reference	GA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	MD-88
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	STAR HONIE EIGHT
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	FMS/FMC
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Engineer Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 25 Flight Crew Total 19000 Flight Crew Type 25
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown

Narrative:

On honie 8 arrival as we checked in with atl TRACON we were informed that ILS prm approaches were now in use (not stated on the ATIS) and we were given a runway change. As pilot flying I re-programmed the FMS - I made all of the changes and pushed enter - while waiting for the FMS (note: the FMS is slow on the MD88 when making changes) to re-compute we passed the fix on the arrival and the FMS went into heading hold as the fix was now behind us. I went into heading select and turned to maintain the STAR; while I re-programmed the FMS to proceed direct to the next fix - the FMS took what I thought a longer than normal time to process and I pointed this out to the first officer who then had us go direct to the next fix using his mcdu. The FMS re-calculated and we proceeded direct to the next fix. During all of this we drifted right of course as we were right over lgc. ATC asked if we were joining the arrival. I am not sure how far right of course we were; but I do not believe we were significantly off course. There was no conflict with other traffic. I am new on the aircraft and my familiarity with FMS operation is still developing. In the future I will wait to make changes if I see I will be close on a fix given the MD88 slow processing speed.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An MD-88 Captain; new to the airplane; had difficulty programming the FMS for a change in their arrival clearance to ATL and a track deviation resulted.

Narrative: On HONIE 8 arrival as we checked in with ATL TRACON we were informed that ILS PRM approaches were now in use (not stated on the ATIS) and we were given a runway change. As pilot flying I re-programmed the FMS - I made all of the changes and pushed enter - while waiting for the FMS (Note: the FMS is slow on the MD88 when making changes) to re-compute we passed the fix on the arrival and the FMS went into heading hold as the fix was now behind us. I went into heading select and turned to maintain the STAR; while I re-programmed the FMS to proceed direct to the next fix - the FMS took what I thought a longer than normal time to process and I pointed this out to the First Officer who then had us go direct to the next fix using his MCDU. The FMS re-calculated and we proceeded direct to the next fix. During all of this we drifted right of course as we were right over LGC. ATC asked if we were joining the arrival. I am not sure how far right of course we were; but I do not believe we were significantly off course. There was no conflict with other traffic. I am new on the aircraft and my familiarity with FMS operation is still developing. In the future I will wait to make changes if I see I will be close on a fix given the MD88 slow processing speed.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

An md-88 captain; new to the airplane; had difficulty programming the FMS for a change in their arrival clearance to atl and a track deviation resulted.