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Upskill / Avionics and Flight Deck Systems / Flight management system (FMS)

Flight management system (FMS)

From the four jobs an FMS does, through its parts, its 28-day database and the navigation rules it serves, to datalink, maintenance and where flight management is heading.

By Aerospace Garage Desk · Practitioner · 40 minutes · 20 narrated pages · Updated October 2026

What you will be able to do

  • ✓ Explain the four core functions of an FMS (navigation, flight planning, performance and guidance) and how the crew uses them
  • ✓ Describe the FMS architecture: FMC, CDU/MCDU, databases, sensors and the links to autopilot and autothrottle, and the standards used to approve it
  • ✓ Explain the navigation database, ARINC 424 coding, the 28-day AIRAC cycle and data quality assurance under EASA Part-DAT and FAA guidance
  • ✓ Explain PBN (RNAV, RNP, RNP AR) under ICAO Doc 9613 and the EU and FAA rules, and how the FMS manages VNAV and descent
  • ✓ Describe FMS datalink (CPDLC, ATN B1, FANS 1/A, ADS-C EPP), database and software maintenance, and the main trends

Course content

Session 1 · What a flight management system does

1

  1. One computer, four jobs · free preview
  2. Building the flight: planning and performance
  3. From plan to path: guidance
  4. Worked example: cost index and the fuel check in cruise
Session 2 · Inside the system: architecture and sensors

2

  1. The boxes and the screens
  2. Where am I? Sensors and position
  3. Linked to the autopilot, and how it is approved
  4. Worked example: is the position good enough for RNP 0.3?
Session 3 · The navigation database

3

  1. What is in the database
  2. The 28-day rhythm: AIRAC
  3. Data quality and Part-DAT
  4. Worked example: dating a new approach and checking the database
Session 4 · Performance-based navigation and VNAV

4

  1. PBN: specify the performance, not the sensor
  2. RNP AR: when the approach needs authorisation
  3. VNAV and the descent
  4. Worked example: checking the top of descent
Session 5 · Datalink, maintenance and the future

5

  1. Talking to air traffic control by datalink
  2. Keeping it current: maintenance and software loading
  3. Where flight management is heading
  4. From the investigation file: the departure that turned the wrong way

Who this course is for

Upskill courses are for professional development and are not approved by any aviation authority. Learner Terms

Course content © Aerospace Garage Limited. All rights reserved.