Airbus 320 neo and Modern aircraft fleet

VA aircraft and route information area.

Moderators: Guru's, The Ministry

User avatar
blanston12
Vintage Pair
Vintage Pair
Posts: 2718
Joined: 28 Jun 2004, 20:45
Location: San Francsico, California

Re: Airbus 320 neo and Modern aircraft fleet

Post by blanston12 »

I have done a couple practice flights on my own using the MSFS A320, not sure I want to download the other 'Flybywire one as I would rather find something less complicated than more. I finally figured out how to set the altitude in the autopilot, but have not figured out how to set the ILS frequency and then set the AP to follow it down.

One general thing about MSFS is the ATC, when doing an ILS approach in FSX or P3D it would tell you the turns to guide you so you would be in the right approach to the runway, MSFS is silent on that so its really not that different than doing an VFR flight.
Joe Cusick,

Image
I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

Vc Ten
Concorde
Concorde
Posts: 1347
Joined: 18 Apr 2010, 17:02

Re: Airbus 320 neo and Modern aircraft fleet

Post by Vc Ten »

Hi Joe
When I've used the msfs route planner for an ILS flight plan, I have let the AP follow the route. I think because the planner gives you the star approach you don't get the nagging from Atc to turn to vector whatever, like you did in fsx. If you deviate from your planned route I don't know :dunno:
I generally don't use the built in planner, preferring to have the route uploaded from SimBrief hence all my flights are seen by Atc as vfr so I get no guidance
The reason why I use the flyby wire mod is that the aircraft works better with it. The early versions of the default A320 wouldn't follow the AP reliably and was a nightmare to land Admittedly there is more functionality but mostly eye candy. It doesn't make it more difficult to fly
I'll post some pics to make it easy to see how to find/ set ILS info
Dale
Image Image Image

Vc Ten
Concorde
Concorde
Posts: 1347
Joined: 18 Apr 2010, 17:02

Re: Airbus 320 neo and Modern aircraft fleet

Post by Vc Ten »

Airbus1.jpg
Airbus1.jpg (121.5 KiB) Viewed 1607 times
If you have entered the arrival details into the planner, the arrival runway and ILS information should already be in the FMC
If not Click on the key to the left of the arrival airport, which takes you to the page above. Select your runway from here.
airbus2.jpg
airbus2.jpg (121.09 KiB) Viewed 1607 times
Some airports don't have ther ils frequency included in the avcad file. So you need to enter it manualy. Its best to check anyway.
Click on the radnav key. If there is no entry in the ILS box, just enter the frequency using the keypad.
airbus2a.jpg
airbus2a.jpg (57.26 KiB) Viewed 1607 times
Once within range of your ILS beacon ( say 20 to 30 miles) Click on the LS button. This brings up the ILS bars and the ILS info
airbus3.jpg
airbus3.jpg (66.24 KiB) Viewed 1607 times
On a stable ? approach, click on Appr button. This locks the nav to the ILS beacon.
airbus4.png
(691.9 KiB) Downloaded 1113 times
Trust in your instruments!! A really miserable approach into Manchester
Image Image Image

User avatar
TSR2
The Ministry
Posts: 15647
Joined: 17 Jun 2004, 14:32
Location: North Tyneside, UK
Contact:

Re: Airbus 320 neo and Modern aircraft fleet

Post by TSR2 »

Thanks for the heads up. I did wonder how to do it, but gave up. :)

This is exactly why I don’t fly with an FMC. So much time fannying about ”programming” the flight. If I can’t just set the NAV radios, it just does nothing for me. Horses for courses.
Ben.:tunes:

ImageImageImage

User avatar
blanston12
Vintage Pair
Vintage Pair
Posts: 2718
Joined: 28 Jun 2004, 20:45
Location: San Francsico, California

Re: Airbus 320 neo and Modern aircraft fleet

Post by blanston12 »

I'm with you Dale, I have never really used an FMC and hope not to, The nagging from Atc to turn to vector whatever is what I would like.
Joe Cusick,

Image
I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

User avatar
blanston12
Vintage Pair
Vintage Pair
Posts: 2718
Joined: 28 Jun 2004, 20:45
Location: San Francsico, California

Re: Airbus 320 neo and Modern aircraft fleet

Post by blanston12 »

I have been doing some practice flights on my own, trying to figure out how to use the default A320 and for the most part I think I am just about ready to start my official training flights in the VA.

I did do an experiment using the MSFS 'copilot'. There is an option to allow the copilot to fly the plane, so I got the sim loaded up and opened the copilot window from the MSFS menu and turned on the 'control aircraft' option and on its own the plane took off and started its climb and navigated toward my destination. Everything was fine until it was time to descend, as the copilot did very little to try to limit the aircrafts speed, it did not bother to lower the flaps and crossed the runway threshold at around 300 knots. While using to copilot I also could not turn on time acceleration and had to fly at 1x, which was not really a problem. But if your going to use the copilot, make sure you turn it off when you start to descend.
Joe Cusick,

Image
I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

User avatar
Nigel H-J
Red Arrows
Red Arrows
Posts: 8035
Joined: 14 May 2005, 15:33
Location: Lincolnshire

Re: Airbus 320 neo and Modern aircraft fleet

Post by Nigel H-J »

This is exactly why I don’t fly with an FMC. So much time fannying about ”programming” the flight. If I can’t just set the NAV radios, it just does nothing for me. Horses for courses.
Now that made me laugh, I am not a great fan of FMC's and feel it is a lazy man's guide to navigation however, the times I do use it I plan my flight using Littlenavmap and instead of the straight line say from Heathrow to Glasgow I grab the red line that shows my course and attach it to VOR ADF etc and leave it at that. Once saved I just load that into the FMC as Co Route then ready to go, to hell with putting anything else in. Then fly and choose when to climb to cruise height and set my own speed as required. The same goes with the descent and speed, all I do then is select approach on the ILS for landing or do it manually, all it takes is to just load the saved flight plan and then fly! The rest of the FMC is left well alone. :worried:

Regards
Nigel.
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.

Vc Ten
Concorde
Concorde
Posts: 1347
Joined: 18 Apr 2010, 17:02

Re: Airbus 320 neo and Modern aircraft fleet

Post by Vc Ten »

I started flying, using the Fmc on the BAC146. It was the first aircraft I used that had one modelled
I used this for my foray into IVAO online flying, where you needed to submit a valid real world flight plan before any flight would be accepted.
Most flight plans are just a series of airways and waypoints usually with VORs at intersections. Yes, not impossible to fly beacon to beacon but there is a bit of guesswork in between where you bring up the GPS just to make sure.
Ok more time spent on the ground setting the thing up, but once in the air it takes the workload away to do other things. As you say Nigel, you can use most planners to save a route, so it can be loaded as a company route with one keypress. Its how its done in the real world now, and certainly more realistic than following the red line on the Garmin.
Very satisfying to fly long haul in say PMDG 747 400 to see it, faithfully follow the route all the way, and start its descent at the exact point and descent profile, following the numbers down matching the chart heights and speeds
Unfortunately we wont see that level of simulation accuracy in MSFS until PMDG release their 737 and 747.

Joe. Hope your co pilot didn't get abused too much by the CEO, during his tea and biscuits ( Oh, no biscuits ) chat :lol:
Dale
Image Image Image

User avatar
Nigel H-J
Red Arrows
Red Arrows
Posts: 8035
Joined: 14 May 2005, 15:33
Location: Lincolnshire

Re: Airbus 320 neo and Modern aircraft fleet

Post by Nigel H-J »

Hi Dale, I had watched a number of 'how to do it' videos on You Tube regarding the use of FMC, all appeared to go well until the aircraft would not climb or descend when it should even though the FMC was set to automatic (or whatever it is called) I had even tried setting the descend higher than 3 but nothing happened. :wall:

Seeing the FMC would not do as I told it we are no longer friends and I select my descents when I think it about right. :rant:

Regards
Nigel.
I used to be an optimist but with age I am now a grumpy old pessimist.

User avatar
blanston12
Vintage Pair
Vintage Pair
Posts: 2718
Joined: 28 Jun 2004, 20:45
Location: San Francsico, California

Re: Airbus 320 neo and Modern aircraft fleet

Post by blanston12 »

Did my third training flight today, EGLL to LFPG. Got frustrated with it as I could not change the the ILS frequency in the Nav radio, I was able to do it last week but today it did not want to work. I downloaded the Flybywire and tried to do the same thing before take off and it did not respond the same way as the default aircraft did.

I think what frustrates me about MSFS is that while much of the visuals are way better than what came before, many of the systems like the autopilots and the ATC are worse, and when I go back to P3D where those things work properly I am reminded that the visuals are not what they could be, so I find myself flying less over all.
Joe Cusick,

Image
I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

Post Reply