[BUG LOGGED] Airbus A320 neo lacking climb performance after update

Conditions

  • No FBW mod installed
  • CG within limits
  • Weight max. TOW and 52t
  • Modern flight model
  • Clean configuration
  • ISA conditions
  • 290 kts until speed conversion then Mach .78
  • Thrust MCT

Take-off at max. TOW

When performing a take-off at max. TOW, full back sidestick is required to rotate to 10 degrees pitch. “S” speed is above max. flap extend speed. In the picture below you can see gross weight just below 79t on the ECAM with S speed above VFE…


Flight Dynamics

Force vectors still wrong with the CG in front of the envelope, lift acts in front of the weight with an up-force on the horizontal stabilizer. This is wrong. No wonder they had to tweak the fuel consumption…


Climb Performance

  • FL150: 2000 ft/min at full weight with 290 kts in ISA, that is in accordance with the Eurocontrol aircraft performance database.
  • FL240: 975 ft/min passing FL240, not looking so good anymore.
  • The A320 ceo has a max. ceiling of FL370 at max. weight. I’m hitting absolute ceiling at FL290 after having to reduce speed to green dot to remain climbing (and hand flying because the autopilot is doing an awfull job maintaing green dot speed). To be clear not the service ceiling but the ABSOLUTE ceiling with 0 ft/min.*
  • The Airbus A320 ceo should have a service ceiling of FL370 at 78t and ISA, the MSFS A320 doesn’t even reach optimum FL of FL315 for 78t! I’m expecting the A320 neo performance to be equal or better than the A320 ceo. The Airbus seems to significantly under-perform comparing to the performance data I could find.
  • Second test with weight at 52t, ISA conditions and MCT. Climb with 290 kts, then reducing to green dot speed as climb performance reaches near zero. You can see in the above tables that the Airbus must be able to reach FL410 easily with Mach .78. I’m stuck at green dot levelling out at FL370 (which is below optimum flight level even)!


You might also be interested in this somewhat related post:

The slightly too optimistic performance of the previous version was apparently much closer than it is now.

99% of the users complained about the rocket like climb, despite the fact that even a CEO at 64t, SL and MCT climbs at 5000ft/min.

2 Likes

All we hear now is “Please expedite your climb to FL390”. Well ATC, if Asobo didn’t break the plane, I would get to FL390 but here I am!!!

8 Likes

GREAT write up, thank you for taking the time and effort to put this together! Valuable input from a Subject Matter Expert (from the quality of the content, I assume you are an SME😊).

Hopefully Asobo/Microsoft will see this and the Devs will put it to good use.

With the FBW mod in place, there seems to be a consensus that the A320 is the best functioning airliner in the sim right now. So, I’m hoping they will do a hotfix to get it back on track ASAP.

Also, since Asobo/Microsoft are cooperating with FlyByWire and Working Title now, I would think that they would test with the mods installed before releasing. Hopefully will do this from now on. Imagine the grief it would’ve prevented.

Again, thank you for putting together this thoughtful, detailed write up. Greatly appreciated!

2 Likes

Thank you for the explanation! It’s really frustrating. It takes ages for the A32N to climb at the moment! It seems like every other patch/update makes the Airbus not flyable.

I did hear a rumor that the problem is solved when you climb with anti/de-ice on, I did my testing is clear air so if this is true there must be some ghost icing going on :sweat_smile:. Haven’t tested it yet, maybe its nonsense.

You might also be interested in this somewhat related post:

Except I don’t play with icing effects enabled lol

Ok thats a myth busted in that case :sweat_smile:

:joy:Its borked bro. Borked I tell you lol.

1 Like

Hello, since the last update, the A320 has only climbed 500 feet per minute around 30,000 feet. Otherwise the speed drops and the plane noses down.
I think that this problem is due to the fact that to correct the fuel consumption of the plane, they lowered the engine power and it is felt on the ground, I have to push the throttle much more to move the plane forward.

Hi,

From my side since last update, the A320 turns very slowly to follow the waypoint.

■■■■ this updatye

1 Like

I also had this problem 1 time after the update but not all the time

I just experienced the same issue with the Airbus A320 of the very slow climb rate after 30000ft after the recent update. Also since the update the auto pilot is very slow and unresponsive. I have to assist it to lock on the track and if there is a tighter turn during the climb or approach the aircraft doesn’t respond or seem to be able to handle it and I have to take over manually. It also didn’t respond to using the ‘Heading’ control on auto pilot either.
I also had about 3 annoying pop up messages during approach saying my internet connection was lost when it wasn’t and no mouse pointer available to reset the message meaning I was ‘flying blind’ until I somehow reset the message using enter key?
My logbook appeared to update at the end of the flight correctly however when I re-visited logbook later, the entry had changed and made the departure airport the same as the destination with zero flight time logged. Looks like this update has done more damage than fixes and is becoming very frustrating and unenjoyable…

I voted;) Hoping that they will fix this bug …

Thanks, lets not have separated threads on the same bug as its gonna split votes and it won’t get any attention…

my sim is having issues too with auto pilot struggling to climb, I cant fly above 3400 ft, and i have also had a camera problem too, after being in external cam for extended time, went back to cockpit to find copilot figures and on controls at all, like the external camera was working in the cockpit

Hi

The fix in 1.11.6.0 seems to have been to derate the engines. The side effect is that the fuel flow has dropped.

I am 7h57 into a flight, with still 3.5hours of fuel remaining. FL340. I started with 100% tanks on takeoff. FF is 860kg per side. Before the fix, it was 1150kg per side.

Who needs at B787 when a a320 is happy for 11 hours in the air? Or is this the unannounced a320neoXLR?

I know this has been mentioned many times before about the A320 taking forever and struggling to climb to higher altitudes since the latest patch. However, I’m wondering, is this indeed a new bug in the sim, or is this actually more of a realistic climb rate for the A320? Does it really take 25-30 minutes for a medium loaded A320 to climb from sea level to say FL380?

There is already a thread for this: