When you are entering your flight route in the FMC, do you even enter a STAR (and maybe even the..............

Question

...... runway you expect)? Or do you just enter your SID, followed by your route, and then just enter your last point of your route, and then wait to get your STAR and rwy when you are in the air)?

Answer 1

Depends on if your in a hurry to depart. Some things just don't matter so be sure you take care of what does when time is limited.

Answer 2

You enter the route that you received in your clearance.  If your clearance included a STAR, enter it.  It's not uncommon to be assigned a STAR in the air, even if it wasn't a part of the initial clearance.  In this case, enter the STAR in the air at the time it is assigned.  Entering FMC/FMS routes without a clearance is a quick way of making gross navigational errors.

Answer 3

sometimes your flight plan is filed with a STAR included and sometimes not. Either way you put the STAR you expect to get in the FMS (which may be different to the filed one for a variety of reasons) prior to descent because you have to brief the other guy on the arrival.