It’s hard to imagine what happened to you because there’s so many factors that come into play.
Were you cruising at first and you start to descend? Are you already on the descent phase when you start to set your flaps to 1? Because usually, you would only start extending the flaps when you’re entering the STAR on APPR phase, not on the descent phase.
If the VS is going up but pitch is down, means you’re too fast. The airspeed is giving your wings with more lift than it normally would, so you would still be climbing even though you’re nose down.
Fly everything on managed mode, managed climb, managed descent with managed airspeed. Even as you change altitude you change altitude in managed mode.
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Hi all, I started using the A32NX since the patch update because my main planes now have the horrible porpoise bug. It is a great plane and the mod is fantastic. I have a question since it appears to be my wrongdoing more than an error from the sim: I prepare a full IFR fight, including an approach and the ILS for a runway. Everything goes great during the flight, however during the arrival, right before the final approach, the plane starts either to loose speed or altitude, hence I disengage the AP and try to fly manually, but the plane is not responsive, it ends up with the plane crashing down before the airport. This has happened to me 3 times. However there are other times where (doing everything all the same) I am even able to have it Auto-land. Of course this is by flying heading and VS in SELECT mode, lining up to the localizer and glidescope, then arming the approach, then it captures it correctly and autolands without an issue. The issue seems to be on the arrival, I have tried different airports, different runways and different arrivals/approaches and the result is the same. I have tried with both preparing the flight plan using the MSFS planner (world map) and using directly the MCDU, the result is the same. I usually end up having to manage the speeds and descent manually (in selected mode), but then this is when I have the issues. My main concern is why can’t I fly manually after I have disconnected the AP to land myself.
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Depends on what you mean by losing speed or altitude…
- On managed altitude mode (ideally) the plane will try to follow and descend to the waypoint altitude constraints set up in the flight plan. This means that at some point into the approach, it’ll start to descend on its own to reach the target altitude when passing that waypoint in the STAR.
- Same goes for speed. When you leave the cruising altitude to descend, the aircraft will automatically enter the Descent phase, which will slow down on its own to reach the target airspeed for the descent phase in the MCDU.
- This is especially true when it goes into the approach phase. As you enter the STAR, the aircraft will switch to approach phase, which will automatically slow down on its own to a lower speed that was set under the APPR phase for your current flaps.
This combined with the plane trying to follow the altitude constraints of the waypoint may “appear” that the airplane starts to lose power and altitude on its own, since on descent the A320 will reduce power to THR IDLE mode.
If you have an IFR flight plan ready with the ILS runway set up as part of the plan, following the flight path on managed heading mode will get you properly lined up for the runway eventually. I’m still not sure why you would need to use heading in select mode… I mean I understand if you’re switching it because it’s an emergency situation… I’m just wondering why you would need to switch it in the first place. Hmmm…
Make sure your thrust lever is at CL mode, and if everything is set to managed… There shouldn’t be any reason for it to fail… Especially if it happened to you 3 times now.
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Thanks all. One point here, during climb and decent, vertical speed is crazy, I assume this is a bug, right?
Hmm… it could be… But I’m not sure the relationship with the Managed climb airspeed set in the MCDU. By default, and I don’t think we can change this is that, the climb airspeed is set to 320 kts.
Now to me that’s really fast, and if you’re flying that fast and you’re on a positive pitch = high vertical speed. But this vertical speed seems to be slowing down though, the higher you go…
So I dunno… it might be a bug, but I don’t have what the actual value is suppose to be IRL since I’m not an actual A320 pilot. Or that we might be climbing it the wrong way.
Vertical speed will always slow down the higher you get,
as in the real world, the air is less dense.
The cost factor is what determines the speed in the various stages of flight.
You can input that in the FCU, but I’m not sure if that actually does anything.
320 knots is on the faster end for an A320
Yeah, And I usually climb at 245 kts until 10,000 ft. then it’ll speed up to cruising speed of 285 knots before it starts climbing out of 10,000 ft to the cruising altitude. To me this seems normal.
Just FYI, most airliners climb right at 250 below 10,000.
Seems to me 290 was what the Aerosoft bus climbed at in P3D
so you’re pretty close.
Thanks a lot for the very thorough response, what I meant is that the plane was dropping below the altitude and speed constraints of the STAR. And as for the heading, when I go into SELECTED is because at some point the plane tried to return to a previous waypoint before the STAR, a waypoint it had already “passed”.
Yeah, another known bug. I think that’s probably atc related, as clearance is being given after you’ve already passed the star’s entrance point (transition) and thus the plane circles back to enter the star.
Constraints are somewhat followed, but not well.
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I’m starting to think those constraints are as randomly generated as the ATC altitude assignments.
I have the problem that descent from crz altitude works just fine but at approach when the atc tells me to descent for expample from 12000 to 3000 (which is most of the time very late) the A320 (A32nx mod) won’t descent. I have to turn off AP and sink by myself
Are you still slowing down or is there a constraint on the waypoint altitude in your approach. If you think the managed altitude mode not descending the aircraft. Just pull the altitude knob to selected mode and have the status set to OP DES on the FMA. That should make you descent on autopilot mode.
Once you dial in the altitude you want on the FCU, pull the knob out to engage it. Until you pull that knob, you can turn the bug until your fingers fall off and it wont descend or climb.
just a trick for the software currently, when I change alititude I pul the FCU knob set it and then push it to hand it back to MANAGED mode … note that the PFD shows the new altitude
ALSO NOTE … Sometimes the PFD shows the correct altitude (managed target) but does not move up or down to that target … if you PULL and then PUSH the FMU Alt button it activates the climb/descent
(this is not real Airbus technique , it is just to make the MSFS work)
just a note … my autopilot (MCDU f-plan) now shows the ETA for the Waypoints and constraints and the autopilot often moves to the constraint altitude automatically
I usually just push them when I changed altitude to engage the managed mode instead of pull then push again.
Yes I know I have to pull the knob. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.
TCAS is working to set the transponder now … just don’t zoom in too close
Great tips. However, I can’t get the A320 to climb. ATC is constantly reminding me to climb to the assigned altitude. I have tried both the auto climb and manually set the FPM rate but the aircraft still refuses to climb, it only will do 200 fpm or nothing. Even if I set the rate to some ridiculous rate of 4000 it still won’t climb. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Yes, I do have the latest flybywire mod installed, version 0.4
how’s your speed? are they on managed mode and A/THR on with your thrust lever set to CL?