New cruise altitude automatically appeared on MCDU

[dgeddes 1]

Hi there,

Just a quick question today. I was flying on Vatsim today with the Aerosoft A320 and my original filed cruising altitude was FL230. Therefore, I was very confused when a controller told me to climb to FL350. I thought at first, hang on, my initial cruising altitude was FL230... But when I went to check that my cruise altitude on the INIT page of the MCDU was indeed FL230, I saw (I think it was on the PROG page) it was highlighted to me in orange text at the bottom 'NEW CRUISING ALTITUDE FL350. The new cruising altitude was also present on the INIT page. I was confused by this. If ATC changed my assigned cruising altitude, then how the the aircraft know to change that automatically in the MCDU?

Sorry if this is a silly question, but it just left me confused!

[datguytho 38]

No worries! If the FMS detects that you are actually going to a different cruise level it will automatically replace these values with the value you select on the altitude knob on the FCU.  Meaning that whenever you are setting the altitude knob to a higher level, FL350 from 230 in this case, the bus will automatically adjust the CRZ level in the FMS. Whenever it does so, the orange message will be displayed.

 

Dont worry, the ATC didn't hack into your Airbus' FMS. =) 

[dgeddes 1]

On 29/10/2017 at 9:52 PM, datguytho said:

No worries! If the FMS detects that you are actually going to a different cruise level it will automatically replace these values with the value you select on the altitude knob on the FCU.  Meaning that whenever you are setting the altitude knob to a higher level, FL350 from 230 in this case, the bus will automatically adjust the CRZ level in the FMS. Whenever it does so, the orange message will be displayed.

 

Dont worry, the ATC didn't hack into your Airbus' FMS. =) 

Ah right, thanks for the reply, that really cleared it up a lot! I was so confused as to why it had changed on its own! Many thanks!