C550 CAPTAIN MISPROGRAMS FMC WAYPOINT ON ARRIVAL TO IAD.

Narrative

I WAS INITIALLY CLRED TO IAD VIA LRP AND THE DELRO 1 ARR. I LOADED THE ARR INTO THE GARMIN 530 AND PROCEEDED TO LRP. A SHORT WHILE LATER THE CLRNC WAS AMENDED TO 'DIRECT LRP; DIRECT MULRR; DIRECT IAD.' MULRR IS ON THE ARR; AND IN AN EFFORT TO SIMPLIFY; INSTEAD OF DELETING ALL OF THE OTHER WAYPOINTS ON THE ARR; I CHOSE TO ADD MULRR TO THE ACTIVE FLT PLAN; AND DELETE THE ARR FROM THE FLT PLAN; WHICH I THOUGHT WOULD BE EASIER THAN DELETING EACH OF THE OTHER WAYPOINTS. ALSO; I WANTED TO SHOW MY COPLT HOW TO DELETE AN ARR FROM THE FLT PLAN. I SCROLLED DOWN ON THE ACTIVE FLT PLAN AND ENTERED MULRR; HOWEVER I MISSPELLED IT 'MULLR.' ODDLY ENOUGH; THE INCORRECT 'MULLR' APPEARED IN THE DATABASE; ABOUT 20 NM S OF LRP. I THOUGHT IT ODD TO HAVE A DOGLEG; SO I QUERIED ATC TWICE; AND EACH TIME THEY CONFIRMED THEY NEEDED ME OVER MULRR. WHEN I ARRIVED AT LRP; I MADE A HARD L TO THE ERRONEOUS 'MULLR AND SHORTLY THEREAFTER; ATC WAS ASKING ME WHERE THE HECK I WAS GOING. THEY GAVE ME A VECTOR AND ALL ENDED WITHOUT INCIDENT. AT THAT POINT I WAS QUITE PUZZLED BY THE FACT THAT MY MULLR WASN'T IN THE SAME PLACE AS THEIR MULRR. ON THE GND; CHKED THE DATABASE AND FOUND A USER WAYPOINT 'MULLR' (N39 40.3 W 75 36.5); NOT TOO FAR FROM THE REAL MULRR. I SUSPECT A PLT ON A FLT SOMETIME EARLIER WAS GIVEN DIRECT MULRR; MISSPELLED IT AS I DID; AND WHILE PUNCHING THE ENTER KEY WITHOUT LOOKING; (AS I DID) CREATED A USER WAYPOINT AT HIS PRESENT POS. THIS CHAIN OF EVENTS COULD HAVE BEEN BROKEN A NUMBER OF WAYS: 1) ALWAYS; ALWAYS; ALWAYS; VERIFY THE WAYPOINT YOU ARE ENTERING. MAKE SURE IT'S IN YOUR GEOGRAPHICAL AREA; AND NOT A USER WAYPOINT. DON'T JUST LOOK AWAY AND BANG THE ENTER KEY 3 TIMES. 2) ALWAYS HAVE THE PAPER VERSION OF THE CHART; ARR OR DEP OPEN ON YOUR LAP. VERIFY THE PAPER MATCHES THE DATABASE. I USUALLY DO; BUT WHEN I GOT THE ABBREVIATED CLRNC; I PUT THE ARR AWAY. IF I HAD IT IN FRONT OF ME; I WOULD HAVE SEEN THE SPELLING/LOCATION WAS WRONG. 3) IF IT DOESN'T LOOK RIGHT; IT PROBABLY ISN'T. IF YOUR RTE LOOKS LIKE AN EKG; YOU DID SOMETHING WRONG. VERIFY IT; AND VERIFY IT AGAIN. I DID ASK ATC ABOUT SOMETHING THAT APPEARED ABNORMAL; BUT I WASN'T SPECIFIC ENOUGH. WE WEREN'T TALKING ABOUT THE SAME THING. I WONDER HOW MANY USER WAYPOINTS HAVE BEEN CREATED THIS WAY IN A TYPICAL GARMIN BOX THAT ARE CLOSE SPELLINGS TO REAL WAYPOINTS. IT MIGHT BE WORTH A SCROLL THROUGH JUST TO SEE HOW MANY TIMES THIS HAS HAPPENED.