Narrative:

I was flying single pilot to north las vegas airport in a corporate jet. Everything was going fine until I noticed that my FMS; which was loaded with the CLARR2 arrival; did not have any waypoints in it after skebr though there were several on the arrival chart. So I asked approach what they wanted me to do after skebr and they said to continue on the arrival -- which I couldn't do -- so I told them to give me a vector and I'd get the whole arrival loaded. They gave me a vector that put me more or less on the leg of the arrival between skebr and issar while I added las as my destination so I could load the arrival with all of the waypoints in it. There is a note on the plate for vgt arrivals to expect vectors after skebr so I guess the database in my FMS thought it should end the arrival at skebr; which it did. Once I had the whole arrival programmed I notified approach who then gave me an intercept for the leg between issar and bld VOR. I set up the FMS to intercept this course and it looked great. I took a look at something on a VNAV page then went back to the navigation page of the FMS and was monitoring the intercept when I got a call to descend to 10;000 ft. So between putting in the altitude and starting the descent I didn't notice that the needle was alive and moving fast even though I was slowed to 210 KIAS because of the one mile scale on the needle; so I disengaged the autopilot and started a turn. I don't know if that needle went full-deflection but it looked like it didn't to me. As I was starting the turn the controller asked me if I was turning and I said yes; then he pointed out a climbing airliner and said he needed me to turn as tight as I could to keep his spacing. Having an intermittently working TCAS system I could not see the airliner on TCAS or out the window as I turned. I did tighten up the turn to almost 40 degrees and intercepted the arrival; while worrying about my passenger's comfort. The controller did not mention anything about this afterwards as I was vectored around las until pointed to vgt and given the visual. Contributing factors: lack of sleep the night before. I have not flown single pilot in jets on a regular basis since 2002. I must have canceled the intercept by going to that page but it may not have intercepted because we were so close to issar (but inside of it) so there is an FMS knowledge gap there even though I thought I knew everything about the universal 1-K. How to avoid: well; besides adequate sleep; I could have asked the controller earlier about what to do after skebr; then monitored the intercept instead of letting the guy get me busy answering the call and starting the descent: fly-navigate-communicate really works. I did not list a conflict because ATC seemed happy that my turn kept me away from the other plane but thought this incident proves that if you fly single pilot in a jet in complex and busy airspace you have to be more prepared.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A modest track deviation was experienced by a single pilot aboard a corporate jet. Contributing factors were a confusing CLARR2 STAR for VGT; an apparently contrary FMS database display and an Approach Controller unclear on the STAR with respect to airports other than LAS.

Narrative: I was flying single pilot to North Las Vegas airport in a corporate jet. Everything was going fine until I noticed that my FMS; which was loaded with the CLARR2 arrival; did not have any waypoints in it after SKEBR though there were several on the arrival chart. So I asked approach what they wanted me to do after SKEBR and they said to continue on the arrival -- which I couldn't do -- so I told them to give me a vector and I'd get the whole arrival loaded. They gave me a vector that put me more or less on the leg of the arrival between SKEBR and ISSAR while I added LAS as my destination so I could load the arrival with all of the waypoints in it. There is a note on the plate for VGT arrivals to expect vectors after SKEBR so I guess the database in my FMS thought it should end the arrival at SKEBR; which it did. Once I had the whole arrival programmed I notified approach who then gave me an intercept for the leg between ISSAR and BLD VOR. I set up the FMS to intercept this course and it looked great. I took a look at something on a VNAV page then went back to the NAV page of the FMS and was monitoring the intercept when I got a call to descend to 10;000 FT. So between putting in the altitude and starting the descent I didn't notice that the needle was alive and moving fast even though I was slowed to 210 KIAS because of the one mile scale on the needle; so I disengaged the autopilot and started a turn. I don't know if that needle went full-deflection but it looked like it didn't to me. As I was starting the turn the Controller asked me if I was turning and I said yes; then he pointed out a climbing airliner and said he needed me to turn as tight as I could to keep his spacing. Having an intermittently working TCAS system I could not see the airliner on TCAS or out the window as I turned. I did tighten up the turn to almost 40 degrees and intercepted the arrival; while worrying about my passenger's comfort. The Controller did not mention anything about this afterwards as I was vectored around LAS until pointed to VGT and given the visual. Contributing factors: Lack of sleep the night before. I have not flown single pilot in jets on a regular basis since 2002. I must have canceled the intercept by going to that page but it may not have intercepted because we were so close to ISSAR (but inside of it) so there is an FMS knowledge gap there even though I thought I knew everything about the Universal 1-K. How to avoid: Well; besides adequate sleep; I could have asked the controller earlier about what to do after SKEBR; then monitored the intercept instead of letting the guy get me busy answering the call and starting the descent: Fly-Navigate-Communicate really works. I did not list a conflict because ATC seemed happy that my turn kept me away from the other plane but thought this incident proves that if you fly single pilot in a jet in complex and busy airspace you have to be more prepared.

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.