MD11 relief pilot discovers during preflight that a problem exists the navigation data base installe...

Narrative:

Prior to our flight we noticed that some of our waypoints that were on our flight plan were not in our navigation database. We discussed this with our dispatch department and a new flight plan was filed. We operated as though our database was out of date. We verified every waypoint and hard tuned navaids and used current enroute charts. We also requested direct routing around built waypoints. Prior to the flight we felt that the program that dispatch was using was corrupt since our navigation database was only 2 days old. After departure we were given a direct routing to a fix that was not in our database. This made us believe that it was our database that was in error and not dispatches. We called out flight operations department to have them contact the data base manufacturer about our issue. They (flight operations) discovered that the load in our FMS was 3 years old. When we arrived at our destination we logged the navigation database discrepancy in our maintenance logbook. In the future it would be helpful to get flight ops involved prior to departure. Maybe we can get dispatch to list the correct FMS navigation load in our flight plans; so we can double check the database number since years are not listed with the day and month in our database.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: MD11 Relief Pilot discovers during preflight that a problem exists the NAV data base installed in their FMC; although the effective date is correct. Enroute it was determined that the NAV data base was three years out of date.

Narrative: Prior to our flight we noticed that some of our waypoints that were on our flight plan were not in our NAV database. We discussed this with our Dispatch Department and a new flight plan was filed. We operated as though our database was out of date. We verified every waypoint and hard tuned navaids and used current enroute charts. We also requested direct routing around built waypoints. Prior to the flight we felt that the program that Dispatch was using was corrupt since our NAV database was only 2 days old. After departure we were given a direct routing to a fix that was not in our database. This made us believe that it was our database that was in error and not dispatches. We called out Flight Operations Department to have them contact the data base manufacturer about our issue. They (Flight Operations) discovered that the load in our FMS was 3 years old. When we arrived at our destination we logged the NAV database discrepancy in our Maintenance Logbook. In the future it would be helpful to get flight ops involved prior to departure. Maybe we can get Dispatch to list the correct FMS NAV load in our flight plans; so we can double check the database number since years are not listed with the day and month in our database.

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	967310
Time
Date	201108
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.ARTCC
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	MD-11
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	FMS/FMC
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Relief Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 154 Flight Crew Total 13750 Flight Crew Type 5200
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Deviation - Procedural Maintenance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

MD11 relief pilot discovers during preflight that a problem exists the navigation data base installed in their FMC; although the effective date is correct. Enroute it was determined that the navigation data base was three years out of date.