I’ve attached a picture to illustrate the issue. Almost all of my landings require a transition approach. The instructions for the transition normally do not occur until the plane is within 50 nm of the airport. When the new flight path appears, the plane almost always must first turn around and then after, in many cases, a considerable distance, turn back around and proceed toward the airport. I don’t know how this works in the real world, but I would think the transition flight path should always begin where the plane currently is located in order to avoid backtracking prior to final approach. I attached a picture of a flight I made today approaching Atlanta Hartsfield. The end of the hook on the transition flight path is where my plane was located prior to executing the transition. The plane is forced to turn around and backtrack around the loop, and then eventually continues on its way to the airport. This is very annoying, not to mention unrealistic. It would be great if someone had either a fix or a workaround for this issue. I have already submitted this to the Zendesk for a second time, the first time being a year ago. Thanks for your time.
Which aircraft? Working Title has resolved this on their versions of the Garmins and ProLine 21.
I’ve had this problem with every jet, even though I did note a few exceptions recently with the A32NX (FBW). I also have had this problem with the TBM. I’m not familiar with the ProLine 21, but I realize that WT has a G3000 mod, but I never installed it since I keep getting an error about the file path being too long.
Can you tell me which planes should be able to accommodate a smooth transition flight plan? I’d really like to test it out. Thanks for your quick reply and assistance.
Anything with a Working Title Flight Management System (i.e., Garmin, ProLine 21).
The Honeywell ProLine 21 is the FMS on the CJ4. That was actually Working Title’s first mod to the sim and it’s brilliant. It addresses the U-Turn.
The G1000 NXi on the Marketplace totally solves the U-turn.
The Working Title G3000 and G3X also mitigate the U-turn by adding their own logic to when the Procedure is Loaded and Activated.
The problem might be that your Community folder is too deep in C:\ from a directory path perspective and Windows cannot support something that deeply embedded. There is a support article on the MSFS Zendesk that talks about how to move your Packages Folder (which contains the Community folder where you mods are located) to a different path which could resolve that issue.
Once again, thanks very much for your feedback and assistance. I will definitely look into relocating my Community Folder as a potential solution.
FYI, I just made a flight using the TBM mod (Mugz) from Midway Airport in Chicago (KMDW) to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin (KSUE). The only waypoint I added was KMKE, which ended up being the last waypoint prior to the destination airport. About 20NM from KSUE, I selected the RNAV RWY 28 Approach. The plane made a 180 degree turn. I stuck with it to see where it would go. It ended up going all the way back to KMKE, and then did another 180 back north toward the destination of KSUE.
Hopefully moving the Community Folder will solve this issue. Thanks again for your help and time.
For the G3000 and G3X, what I have found is to load and activate just after I passed a waypoint on the Flight Plan. If a U-turn still persists, it will only fall back to that WP which is a few NM as opposed to say one that was 150NM away. I do a lot of trans-oceanic flights and that is a lesson I learned quickly on the Longitude and TBM.
Great tip, thanks.
I see the same thing sometimes. I always blamed it on the in-game ATC which I use.
Exactly, I have always assumed it was an ATC problem as well.
It’s more of a Flight Planning Engine logic problem.
The base sim code does not understand all possible AIRAC leg types/procedures. Hence, loading and/or activating an approach (or for that matter, the more complex Arrival + Approach) would result in non-standard maneuver and path-building depictions. The U-turn is one of them. Wide turns (that don’t reflect turn anticipation curves) are another. Also - teardrop entries and exits, holds, Missed Approaches to name a few.
Once G3000 and hopefully G3X are rebuilt to NXi flight planning engine standards, WT can start to rip out the old core code and replace it with their AIRAC compliant engine. That will make everyone’s experience better - even the third parties - some of whom use the Open Source FP engine from WT in their own products (FBW is one of them I believe).
But after that, yes, ATC will need a revamp, to align with FP engine improvements. That’s also on WT’s additional portfolio list from Matt’s Q4 live Dev Q&A appearance.