Baro knob action

I know what the button is supposed to do, I was just explaining what I think the cause is for the behaviour of the button that @Crunchmeister71 described in his post above.

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Sorry, I wasn’t specifically targeting your post. I just don’t understand how it can be so difficult to make a button switch between QNH and QNE :sweat_smile:. Maybe its my OCD but I find those inaccuracies really annoying :upside_down_face::joy:… Wrong baro-setting knobs, ISA deviation indications, bearing pointers / RMIs pointing to localiser antennas, flight director lateral mode not working without autopilot engaged just to name a few :triumph:

If that’s the biggest thing you’re worried about, then the sim is in a pretty good place :slight_smile:

I don’t mind it too much, and prefer they focus their attention elsewhere for now. It’s easy enough to set the standard pressure manually for now. Could it be better? Sure. I’m not going to let it annoy me though.

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I see it differently, if they can’t even get those simple things working as they should in real life, what does that say about the rest of the sim? Aerodynamics? Flight model? And other things we can’t really check.

If it’s that much of an issue for you it’s probably smart to avoid MSFS for about a year until the study level third party planes are released.

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Its not that big of an issue for me, I’m just saying that it is weird that seemingly simple things are not accurately modeled. This worries me that the core sim might be equally flawed. There are enough posts showing a clear lack of understanding of basic principles from the Asobo side.

Its simple in my opinion, if you take the icing effects for example. If you put so much effort to program visual icing effects on the aircraft, why not do it properly? With realism in mind and proper knowledge about inflight icing, maybe some real life experience they would have never come up with what we have now.

RMI pointers or bearing pointers are pointing towards the localizer antenna with an ILS / LOC frequency set, flight director lateral mode not working with AP OFF, wrong autopilot disengagement logic these are fundamental flaws. Somehow even FSX did a better job in those areas.

Just in relation to comments of it supposedly working over 18,000’. It should be pointed out that transition level is different in other parts of the world to the US. In Australia it’s 11,000’. I think it might even be as low as 6,000’ in the UK (not sure). In any event, it’s something that should be set when applicable.

Just as the QnH should reflect Inches of Mercury in the US and Hectapascals in Australia. Small things, but for a pilot using the sim to hone their skills - IMPORTANT.

There is a new command available that sets the altimeter to standard pressure, so you can re-map the “B” key to that if you want. As for me, I just jump in the plane, hit the B, get everything started, then call up ATC and request taxi. I don’t bother with ATIS. I’ve had ATIS tell me one runway is in use for takeoffs, then had ATC tell me to go to the opposite end anyway. If you want real, then just dial the knob like a real pilot, then use your re-mapped B to set standard pressure at whatever altitude you want. But ATC will keep giving you pressures until you’re above FL180, and if your setting has you more than 200’ off, ATC will pitch a fit until you get back to where you’re expected to be.

If you mean transition altitude, it is Indeed around 5000 / 6000 ft in the UK and its not the same for the whole country. In the Netherlands its even 3000 ft. Transition level (first useable FL) is at least 1000 ft above the transition altitude and determined hourly by ATC.

You could set standard below 18000 ft in MSFS if you want to, I have deleted the “please expedite climb / descent” ATC message so its nice and quiet. ATC keeps referring to altitudes instead of FLs unfortunately below 18000 ft, there isn’t much to be done about that.

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Thats a nice workaround indeed, still its unfortunate that a knob with a seemingly simple function doesn’t work …

Another issue is that Pressing B sets the baro in ALL Instruments to current Altimeter setting, even the ones that are meant to always be set permanently to STD … ie Altitude Encoding Transponders… they always send altitude based on STD pressure (ie FL )

That is true indeed. What do you mean with transponder? The transponder normally gets it pressure information from an Air Data Computer, an encoder inside the pressure altimeter (unaffected by baro-setting) or built-in pressure sensor in case unpressurized aircraft.

The transponder always sends pressure altitude (FLs) no matter the baro-setting set on any altimeter. The ATC equipment on the ground is built to convert this into altitude using the local QNH below TL.

YEs … correct – that’s how it works in the real World.

But in MSFS, hitting the B key will set all the Baros in every instrument, including the baro in the Transponder.

Its worse than even that. there is no simconnect function (yet) to set a baro to a given value … just functions to INC & DEC.
So in the Transponder code, to make it work right (which Asobo have not done), one has to put in a inc/dec logic routine, to automatically return the baro to STD, if it is not at STD (because the B button was pushed)

How do you know? Can you read out the pressure altitude from the transponder somewhere? I haven’t paid attention to this actually, that would be really funny :sweat_smile::joy:.

You can look at a Transponder that displays FL, and set the sim to some non STD pressure, hit B, and see the FL move .

Like the Transponder in the c172 Classic Steam Gauge version

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Allright, another facepalm moment :man_facepalming:t3:

Lots of those in MSFS

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Yes; and although the transition altitude is set differently in the A32NX MCDU (ex: 6000 ft) and the QNH will blink on the ND when you go beyond this value (requiring you to switch to STD at 6000 ft), MSFS2020 will still flag you a note to only change the altimeter setting above 18,000 ft. !!

yet another facepalm moment :man_facepalming:t3:… which is even more surprising, as MSFS was developed in Europe !! (-- but maybe copied Blindly from the USA )

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Copied blindly from FSX I assume… Its unfortunate they didn’t copy the good parts.