Narrative:

The first officer did the takeoff. We were cleared as filed up to 1200 M. Everything seemed normal until at 1500 ft (500 M). At 500M the flight director commanded a nose down attitude with a magenta altitude restriction on the altitude tape. At that same time ATC gave us a climb to 1500 M. The first officer pitched the nose over to follow the flight director and we got a 'don't sink' audio alert (we were descending at 300 fpm). From the international relief officer seat; I thought the first officer was confusing our clearance. I thought he was climbing to 1500 ft instead of 1500 meters. I said out loud 'meters; not feet!' the first officer ignored the flight director and initiated a climb by pulling the altitude knob on the fcp and called for 'flaps up'. (The first officer [later] said he wasn't confusing meters and feet; but was trying to follow the flight director commands). At this point we were not sure what was happening and were all confused. The aircraft continued to accelerate. The captain; who was the pilot monitoring; was on the radio when the first officer called 'slats retract'. The airspeed continued to accelerate and I thought we might overspeed the slats and I said 'slats; slats'. The captain brought the slats up and the 'foot' on the airspeed tape instantly came up and we got the stick shaker. The airspeed tape looked like a 'coffin corner'. We went from thinking that we were going to overspeed the slats to a stick shaker -- now we were even more confused. The captain requested a high speed climb and the speed returned to normal. Later in the climb ATC gave us a clearance to FL270. The FMS said that our max altitude was FL240?! We had to level off at FL240 and call the company because we couldn't figure out what was happening as we knew we were [good] to climb to FL270. While the captain was on satcom with company the PF realized the FMS was in engine out mode. We have no idea how this happened; but now things were starting to make sense. I still don't understand how the FMS got itself into engine out mode -- nobody touched anything. Later; on arrival to our destination we had a flap issue. I don't know if the two things are related. The first officer called for flaps 35 and the flaps stopped at 31-32-31-30 and indicated in motion on the pfd. The flaps were symmetrical so we continued to landing. They never reached 35 even though the handle was in the detent. All in all it was a very confusing situation and a little scary because we had to ignore the flight director close to the ground at night in mountainous terrain. I would love to know why the aircraft was in engine out mode and how it got that way.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An MD-11 flight crew was confused by unexpected FMS and autoflight presentations and commands after takeoff. After a period of trouble shooting they realized the FMS had switched to the engine out mode and was providing erroneous commands as a result. After cancelling the mode; commands returned to normal. On approach at their destination they experienced problems with flap extension although they did extend to 'nearly' the requested position. They had no idea if the two issues were somehow related.

Narrative: The First officer did the takeoff. We were cleared AS FILED up to 1200 M. Everything seemed normal until at 1500 ft (500 M). At 500M the flight director commanded a nose down attitude with a magenta altitude restriction on the altitude tape. At that same time ATC gave us a climb to 1500 M. The first officer pitched the nose over to follow the flight director and we got a 'DON'T SINK' audio alert (we were descending at 300 fpm). From the IRO seat; I thought the First Officer was confusing our clearance. I thought he was climbing to 1500 ft instead of 1500 Meters. I said out loud 'Meters; not Feet!' The first officer ignored the flight director and initiated a climb by pulling the Altitude knob on the FCP and called for 'Flaps Up'. (the First Officer [later] said he wasn't confusing meters and feet; but was trying to follow the Flight Director commands). At this point we were not sure what was happening and were all confused. The aircraft continued to accelerate. The captain; who was the pilot monitoring; was on the radio when the FO called 'Slats retract'. The airspeed continued to accelerate and I thought we might overspeed the slats and I said 'Slats; Slats'. The Captain brought the slats up and the 'foot' on the airspeed tape instantly came up and we got the stick shaker. The airspeed tape looked like a 'coffin corner'. We went from thinking that we were going to overspeed the slats to a stick shaker -- now we were even more confused. The Captain requested a high speed climb and the speed returned to normal. Later in the climb ATC gave us a clearance to FL270. The FMS said that our Max Altitude was FL240?! We had to level off at FL240 and call the company because we couldn't figure out what was happening as we knew we were [good] to climb to FL270. While the Captain was on SATCOM with company the PF realized the FMS was in ENGINE OUT MODE. We have no idea how this happened; but now things were starting to make sense. I still don't understand how the FMS got itself into Engine Out Mode -- nobody touched anything. Later; on arrival to our destination we had a flap issue. I don't know if the two things are related. The FO called for flaps 35 and the flaps stopped at 31-32-31-30 and indicated in motion on the PFD. The flaps were symmetrical so we continued to landing. They never reached 35 even though the handle was in the detent. All in all it was a very confusing situation and a little scary because we had to ignore the flight director close to the ground at night in mountainous terrain. I would love to know why the aircraft was in Engine Out mode and how it got that way.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.