A B767-300 crew deleted an expect vector leg after the PG525 waypoint on the lfpg/cdg DVL4W arrival....

Narrative:

Arriving paris on the DVL4W arrival. Merue transition we reached waypoint PG525; the first officer (pilot flying) then turned to heading 109 degrees. In just a few miles the ATC controller asked our heading then almost immediately gave us our turn and clearance onto the final approach. After landing it occurred to us that at waypoint PG525 it is really depicted to be a track and not a magnetic heading. Furthermore; I am in what I believe is the very common habit of deleting a 'vector' waypoint in order to prevent the legacy FMC from failing to compute all the estimated waypoint times; which it does now with near complete regularity. The 'vector' waypoint is co-located at this point in the FMC. This perhaps led us to assume it should be a heading; rather than a track. In my experience; nine times out of ten on this approach it becomes a moot point with radar vectors. In the future; I will review and brief this part of the chart with greater care; especially when I delete a 'vector' from the legs page. It would not have been necessary to delete a vector waypoint from a pegasus computer. The 2 am fatigue certainly contributed to this error.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B767-300 crew deleted an expect vector leg after the PG525 waypoint on the LFPG/CDG DVL4W arrival. The aircraft apparently did not track accurately prompting ATC to query the heading and then issue a vector.

Narrative: Arriving Paris on the DVL4W Arrival. MERUE transition we reached waypoint PG525; the First Officer (pilot flying) then turned to heading 109 degrees. In just a few miles the ATC Controller asked our heading then almost immediately gave us our turn and clearance onto the final approach. After landing it occurred to us that at waypoint PG525 it is really depicted to be a track and not a magnetic heading. Furthermore; I am in what I believe is the very common habit of deleting a 'vector' waypoint in order to prevent the legacy FMC from failing to compute all the estimated waypoint times; which it does now with near complete regularity. The 'vector' waypoint is co-located at this point in the FMC. This perhaps led us to assume it should be a heading; rather than a track. In my experience; nine times out of ten on this approach it becomes a moot point with radar vectors. In the future; I will review and brief this part of the chart with greater care; especially when I delete a 'vector' from the legs page. It would not have been necessary to delete a vector waypoint from a Pegasus computer. The 2 AM fatigue certainly contributed to this error.

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.

Attributes
ACN	861525
Time
Date	200911
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	LFPG.Airport
State Reference	FO
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Dawn
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B767-300 and 300 ER
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	STAR DVL4W
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

A B767-300 crew deleted an expect vector leg after the PG525 waypoint on the lfpg/cdg DVL4W arrival. The aircraft apparently did not track accurately prompting ATC to query the heading and then issue a vector.