Narrative:

After reaching honie intersection we were cleared on a heading of 360 for a right base to runway 9R in atl. We had selected the runway 10 approach and had set up and briefed for that procedure. After being assigned the 9R approach we had to reprogram the FMS for that approach and had only a few minutes to do this. We could have used green needles to do this approach; but we were given a clearance to cross vinii at 7;000 and that fix is not discernible in green needles. As we approached the final the autopilot intercepted the original approach to runway 10 and the final monitor gave us a 070 heading to intercept the 9R localizer. We disengaged the autopilot and flew the 9R approach in manual mode.problem one is that the arrival procedure with its fixes after honie don't appear in the FMS unless you select a runway. Problem two is that when selected the entire arrival with downwind fixes appears even if you're past those fixes or not doing a downwind; giving you pages of unnecessary fixes to sift through. Problem three is that when you are on a base leg and you are given a new runway; the entire arrival; downwind; new runway and multiple discontinuities appear and you have four or five pages of fixes to sift through to select and execute an approach.solution: have the entire arrival install when selected. Have the downwind an option to be chosen only when it's going to be used. Have the runway approach come up alone without an arrival and downwind being reinstalled. When ILS prm approaches are in use have the runway to be expected given to the crew at the arrival gate not inside the traffic pattern by the approach controller unless it's VMC.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: CRJ200 Captain describes difficulties changing runways in the FMC due to the FMC reloading the entire RNAV arrival.

Narrative: After reaching HONIE Intersection we were cleared on a heading of 360 for a right base to Runway 9R in ATL. We had selected the Runway 10 approach and had set up and briefed for that procedure. After being assigned the 9R approach we had to reprogram the FMS for that approach and had only a few minutes to do this. We could have used green needles to do this approach; but we were given a clearance to cross VINII at 7;000 and that fix is not discernible in green needles. As we approached the final the autopilot intercepted the original approach to Runway 10 and the final monitor gave us a 070 heading to intercept the 9R localizer. We disengaged the autopilot and flew the 9R approach in manual mode.Problem one is that the arrival procedure with its fixes after HONIE don't appear in the FMS unless you select a runway. Problem two is that when selected the entire arrival with downwind fixes appears even if you're past those fixes or not doing a downwind; giving you pages of unnecessary fixes to sift through. Problem three is that when you are on a base leg and you are given a new runway; the entire arrival; downwind; new runway and multiple discontinuities appear and you have four or five pages of fixes to sift through to select and execute an approach.Solution: have the entire arrival install when selected. Have the downwind an option to be chosen only when it's going to be used. Have the runway approach come up alone without an arrival and downwind being reinstalled. When ILS PRM approaches are in use have the runway to be expected given to the crew at the arrival gate not inside the traffic pattern by the Approach Controller unless it's VMC.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.