Airbus A320neo vs Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner

I dont know how you feel guys, but I find the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner is so easier to fly especially the setting up of the Autopilot. The A320 is so difficult to make it fly the flightpath and its impossible to set the speed and the V/S no indications if its ON or OFF like the 787. I have seen many tutorials about flying the A320 but all were made before the SU5. Please somene sent me a link of how to set the speed and the V/S and fly the flightpath.

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A320 with the FBW mod is a dream to fly, and this is coming from PMDG guy. to be honest, I donā€™t do much with the V/S and speed (in regard to AP) so there might be issues there, I hand fly that and let AP do the route. If I turn too much over to AP I get bored. Are you talking the stock A320? Do you use simbrief to do you flight plan and pull it in (w/ FBW)?

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These are two different aircraft systems with different design and operational philosophy. Thereā€™s really no ā€œbetterā€ aircraft. Different people will prefer different aircrafts. So itā€™s very subjective. Itā€™s understandable if you prefer the Dreamliner over the Airbus.

I personally like Airbus philosophy over Boeing in general. So I end up uninstalling the Dreamliner and fly exclusively the FBW A320, and the A330-900neo.

So itā€™s just personal preference.

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But I can never adjust the Vertical speed. When I place my mouse cursot on the knob It does not tell me how to engage it

You turn it to the setting and middle mouse click to engage it.

generally to engage A320 modes-
selected mode: middle mouse click (while holding left mouse button down) to engage after changing dial
managed mode: right mouse click (while holding left mouse button down) after changing dial ( a small green dot should appear in the display above the dial to indicate managed mode)

This is same for ALT, SPEED, and HDG too.

When you dial in a specific V/S it has to be in selected mode so middle mouse click otherwise in managed mode it will use a pre determined V/S to ascend/descend

If you are using mouse you need to go to your General Options ā†’ Accessibility ā†’ Cockpit Interactions. And change it to LEGACY. You should be able to regain the control to your mouse to cycle up and down the V/S knob and click the knob at the top or bottom of it to push/pull, respectively.

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I do that but it does nothing. When I press the middle mouse click and then by moving the mouse it moves the ciew from left to right or up and down. Is there a way to change my setting so as not to be able to see that blue image ov the button?

Like Neo4316 has said if you are on PC and not XBox then switch to legacy mode in options to remove blue shading completely.

I leave the new blue ā€˜XBoxā€™ shading mode on as I have both XBox (which canā€™t be switched to legacy) and PC, and I know how to use the interface. Note: You have to click the LEFT mouse button and while holding it down at the same time click middle mouse button (for selected mode), awkward, but it works.

Well switching to LEGACY mode did the trick. Thank you guys

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When I switched to LEGACY mode I am not able to see if some buttons are ON or OFF . If you see at the picture of the A/P panel of the Beeckcraft King Air I donā€™t know, if for example NAV or AP is ON or OFF. Is there a way to correct this?

I have only used the King Air once, and from what i remember, it is not fully implemented in some ways (May have changed, I am not sure) But I dont believe it has ā€œlightsā€ to suggest which button is pressed anyway, even on the real plane. You need to look at the FMA (Flight Mode Annouciator) to see which mode is selectedā€¦

In fact on yoru own screenshot, I can see that you have AP off, and a VS speed of 1500 set, with an altitude of 7000 to capture. so the informaiton is definately there.

Yeah, those are opaque buttons, right? They donā€™t have lights there at all.

I prefer the 787-10 because itā€™s bigger and better looking, but I do think the A320neo is easier to fly, simply because the autopilot is simpler. I never use VS mode, for example. I just set the desired altitude and leave all the rest for the autopilot (on the A320neo). I have never had a problem with it to follow the flight path, or change altitudes and speeds. It does it all automatically. What annoys me only is that at higher altitudes (~30000 ft) the A320neo can barely climb any longer, it takes forever to reach the cruise altitude. That said, I donā€™t have any problems with it, itā€™s easy in my opinion.

The 787 requires more input, you have to manually enter the VS, NAV mode etc, and I think the way it changes altitude is actually uncomfortable, or even incorrect (if you input a different target altitude while already climbing/descending, the plane doesnā€™t take it into account and just moves to the previously set altitude). It takes a lot of fiddling to fly the 787 smoothly. I still prefer it though, simply because thereā€™s more range/potential in that aircraft.

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I use V/S a lot on the A320Neo mainly to counteract ATC telling me to descend rather late. If I go by a managed descent I will likely get to the target altitude ā€˜eventuallyā€™ after overshooting the runway!
Also the Expedite mode isnā€™t functional on the default Neo (it is on the NX) so if you want to ascend/descend fast the V/S is a great way to go about it.

re ā€œinput a different target altitude while already climbing/descendingā€
On the 787 I found that when you change to a different altitude you have to hit the v/s button again to get it to go to the new altitude target I think. Havenā€™t flown it in a week or more so would need to recheck that but it is possible to do.

I will try this, thanks. What I did so far is that I pressed the Hold Altitude button and then immediately the V/S button again. This actually switches the indicated altitude for the autopilot, although looks and feels quite bad as the plane suddenly tries to level then pushes the nose down again. Iā€™ll try just to press V/S again and see what happens.

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You can speed up the descent rate on managed descent by pulling the speedbrakes. With more drag, you will fly slower so the autopilot systems have more airspeed to work with when targeting the set managed speed on descent, so it increases the V/S to keep up with the extra drag to target the set managed airspeed.

Itā€™s true that the default A320neo is slightly more difficult when it comes to climb and descent. But I always fly the FBW A32NX mod, and I always use managed descent when ATC tells me to and I always end up at the right altitude at the right time. I just need to play around with the speedbrakes if I need to speed it up a little.

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Thanks so much for all the information you are providing to us. I just want to know (on the A320) whether you should leave the APU BLEED ON after you start the engines. I am beginning to learn the A320.

APU bleed is turned ON after APU start & before engine start and OFF before taxi once engines are started. The procedure is in in the checklist in the top bar menu. The default Neo checklist is fairly easy/concise. The FBW A320NX has a more comprehensive checklist, but many items and several pages to check (probably more like real life, but may take you 30min to do!).

Iā€™ve not tried the speedbrakes mid flight yet on the Neo, must give it a try. The other thing iā€™ve found useful with V/S is to get the default Neo through some of itā€™s sluggish managed climbs at altitude.
The A320NX is fine in this regard and climbs beautifully in managaed mode so no need.
I also like how the NX lands too - I can land at 120kts with much smoother landings, not sure Iā€™ve managed below 140kts in the default Neo. It may just be me though. Not using the default one much these days only when Iā€™m on the XBox.

Yeah, it does get sluggish especially when managed climb is maintaining the climbing speed. Switching it to V/S mode would override the climb rate, but at the expense of reduced airspeed.

I usually let it climb anyway by setting everything and I leave my chair to grab a coffee or to cook dinner. Hahaha, itā€™ll level off at the cruising altitude eventually. I also just set the cruising altitude in my FCU directly so I donā€™t have to keep changing it based on the ATC instructions.

I turn the APU BLEED OFF, and APU MASTER OFF after both engines are fully started and stabilised. I fly with FS2Crew app, so I have my copilot helping me with the checklist and some of the instruments.

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