Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200)
Flight Crew Commercial
Distraction; Confusion; Human-Machine Interface; Situational Awareness; Troubleshooting
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Aircraft; Human Factors
During initial climb out; after calling for SPEED and NAV modes; I noticed 'FMS' was not appearing in the 'FMA' [Flight Mode Annunciator]. I called for NAV mode again and that's when we noticed the FMS would not sequence to [first waypoint]. The Captain informed ATC immediately that we were having an FMS issue and we received a heading and were asked to let them know when we could accept an RNAV clearance. I then noticed that I had no CDI (white needles) on my compass rose but the Captain did. We transferred the FCC to the Captain's side and then FMS mode worked fine. Once the Captain had the controls I then spun the NAV Source Selector knob to change my NAV data source and it worked. My selector had been placed in between yellow and green needles so I had no needles. The practical result was an ever so slight lateral deviation on an RNAV SID.I will ensure I have the appropriate navigation data displayed before leaving the gate and definitely before takeoff. I am also surprised that the FMS will load correctly and execute without both NAV source selector knobs in white needles.
About that point I saw that we should be making our turn to our first waypoint. I spun the heading bug around to track the course and the First Officer made the turn.After some discussion and experimentation we determined that the most likely cause was that the First Officer had inadvertently selected no navigation source on his source selector instead of white needles. I don't think we should even have an option to select No Navigation Source. It is insidious because it looks very similar to white needles. When would we ever need to not have a navigation source selected?
While conducting the first stages of an RNAV SID; the flight crew of a CRJ-200 suffered a short term track deviation when the First Officer (PF) was unable to display RNAV guidance on his PFD and navigation displays. The Captain; whose displays were normal; took over PF duties. They later determined that the First Officer's Nav Source Selector had been improperly selected.