Narrative:

We were given a clearance over the radio to our filed destination via the colin 5 departure V16 pxt. From previous experience I knew that V16 starts at ric; so I pulled out my low chart and entered ric. V16. Pxt and confirmed the fixes with the first officer against the chart. The first officer then briefed the departure as pilot flying and neither of us correlated the fact that the departure has different fixes prior to intercepting V16. If programmed correctly the FMS should have had model.colin.pxt. Instead it had ric.svill.tappa. Dupey colin pxt. Upon contacting departure we were cleared direct model. Because we expected a left turn to one of the first few named fixes in the flight plan we swung the heading bug to the left and I selected direct. When I could not find model in the flight plan; I realized the error I typed model into the FMS and performed a direct to operation and armed LNAV. I don't even think ATC noticed the left turn by the time we corrected the issue; but that's not really the point. Using the heading bug to lead the turn is probably not the best behavior either! There is something confusing about how ATC delivers the clearance and the fact that V16 is not published on the colin 5; that lead me to generate a flight plan in the FMS starting at the ric VOR!! There are many things I could have done differently; but none of the clues were noticed by either crew member on the flight deck.V16 [was not] published on the COLIN5 [which confused me.] ATC [was] busy working ground and clearance delivery; while I retrieved the clearance. [My] previous knowledge of the airspace forced some sort of bias. I suggest a closer look at the colin 5 (and all future departures) might raise red flags as to how to program the FMS. If something seems weird ask!

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A flight crew cleared on the RIC COLIN 5 then V16 entered the route from memory; but failed to enter the V16 segment and so when cleared direct MODEL realized the error because that fix was not in the FMC.

Narrative: We were given a clearance over the radio to our filed destination via the COLIN 5 departure V16 PXT. From previous experience I knew that V16 starts at RIC; so I pulled out my Low Chart and entered RIC. V16. PXT and confirmed the fixes with the First Officer against the chart. The First Officer then briefed the departure as pilot flying and neither of us correlated the fact that the departure has different fixes PRIOR to intercepting V16. If programmed correctly the FMS should have had MODEL.COLIN.PXT. Instead it had RIC.SVILL.TAPPA. DUPEY COLIN PXT. Upon contacting Departure we were cleared direct MODEL. Because we expected a left turn to one of the first few named fixes in the flight plan we swung the HDG bug to the left and I selected DIRECT. When I could not find MODEL in the flight plan; I realized the error I typed MODEL into the FMS and performed a direct to operation and armed LNAV. I don't even think ATC noticed the left turn by the time we corrected the issue; but that's not really the point. Using the HDG bug to lead the turn is probably not the best behavior either! There is something confusing about how ATC delivers the clearance and the fact that V16 is not published on the COLIN 5; that lead me to generate a flight plan in the FMS starting at the RIC VOR!! There are many things I could have done differently; but none of the clues were noticed by either crew member on the flight deck.V16 [was not] published on the COLIN5 [which confused me.] ATC [was] busy working ground and Clearance Delivery; while I retrieved the clearance. [My] previous knowledge of the airspace forced some sort of bias. I suggest a closer look at the COLIN 5 (and all future departures) might raise red flags as to how to program the FMS. If something seems weird ASK!

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.