Runway Changes made simple in the E175

 Ground ops are probably one of the hardest things to get used to for new FOs. You’ve got a new airplane, new box, new SOPs, and often busy taxi instructions to pay attention to at a new-to-you airport. Runway changes, with their attendant workload, are thus a challenge. Fortunately, there’s a trick to making this simpler in the E175. Take this scenario: you’re south side at LAX on a typical west-flow day and you’re flying north on the LADYJ. You know they’ll usually give you 25R or 24L.
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Taxi chart of LAX with the LADYJ4 fixes off the ends of the runways
What I used to do was put 25R in the box and then hope for the best, assuming that a switch to 24L would give us enough time taxiing around the corner to get it all squared away, and ask to pull over in a pinch. It does usually work, but there’s a better way: use the secondary flight plan menu.
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NAV INDEX and SEC FPL Pages from the Honeywell FMS v27 Pilot's Guide

First of all, get numbers for the expected runways, in this case both 25R and 24L (it's often a good idea to plan intersection departures 25R/F and 24L/E8, sometimes you get offered those to jump the line if there's a hole and #1 needs time) and store those somewhere convenient. In the E175, they should be the same for both sides. Once you’ve entered the 25R takeoff data, here’s where the fun starts:
  1. Hit the NAV button in the box.
  2. Hit SEC FPL MENU (LSK 3R).
  3. Select ACT->SEC2 (4R) to copy the active plan into SEC2.
  4. Click SEC INDEX (6R) to get back to the main menu for SEC2.
  5. Select DEPARTURE (6L), then load the SID from the other runway the same way you would in the active flight plan from the NAV or ROUTE page (in our case the LADYJ from 24L).
  6. Go back to SEC2 INDEX if you’re not there already.
  7. Select FLT PLAN and scroll through the points to check the speed and altitude restrictions for the alternate runway (in this case 24L).

One thing that’s a bit weird in the secondary flight plan is that there’s no “activate” action and there’s no blue/green color coding as you edit, so check your work on the SEC2 FPL page to make sure everything’s stitched up the way you want.

Now you’ve successfully cloned and edited a plan for 24L that’s easy to swap in. When you hear the dreaded “Airline 123, 24L, taxi Charlie, November, north route, contact north ground .65 at the checkpoint,” you’re ready to go. As soon as you get a bit of time to go heads-down, you do the following:
  1. Hit NAV.
  2. Hit SEC FPL MENU (3R).
  3. Hit ACT<->SEC2 SWAP (5R).
  4. Scroll through your MFD and confirm that the fixes in the box look correct for the new runway (DLREY, ENNEY, etc.).
  5. Hit ACTIVATE (6R).
That last sequence should take you ~10 seconds once you’ve practiced it a couple times and will save you the pain of trying to check fixes as you’re rolling down the taxiway when ground is trying to get your attention with something like “Wait for American, then proceed in front of Spirit coming out of the alley, then continue Charlie and take the shortcut through City Ramp.”

You can use the secondary flight plan for other situations (see Honeywell’s video), such as going into a place where they like to give you last minute runway changes on the arrival. A good example is Salt Lake, where you might get  “Plan 34R,” then “Plan 35,” followed by “Do you guys want 34R again?” That way, you can brief the different flavors and be prepared to swing at the curveballs with less stress. Even then, its sometimes safer to say “Unable, will stick with 35 now.” I like to brief a point inside which I will no longer accept a runway change because the risks outweigh the rewards. Best of luck out there.