I’ve noticed since the latest update that after planning a flight using the default flight planner and setting an appropriate cruise level, when flying the plan, the FMC doesn’t go into cruise mode even though I’ve reached the cruise altitude. It stays in climb. It will stay there throughout the flight and will skip decent mode and will only go into approach mode when I get near the approach area. My altimeter is set correctly to 29.92 or standard. At first I thought it had something to do with the SID and Stars but it does this even using plans without them. I can’t figure out why it’s doing this other than the fact it might have to do with the new weather. Anyone else notice this? Before the latest update it would go through all phases of the plan, climb, cruise, decent and approach. Hmmm…
I’ve also noticed this a few times, usually happens if I disconnect auto thrust, and increase power, to help expedite the climb. On returning to auto thrust I also see Perf stay on climb. If I leave on managed for whole flight it seems OK so I’m sticking with that for now. I’m on xbox
Interesting because lately I have been trying out setting it a thrust climb for takeoff instead of TOGO. I’ve read that real pilots don’t set it to TOGO for take off because its more thrust than it needs. Maybe I’ll pay more attention to N1 power and set it to auto-thrust once on a good rate of climb. Thanks, I’ll see if that does the trick.
The proper way to do it would be through the fmc using the flex settings to “derate” the thrust on takeoff. TOGA is still used in certain situations, it’s all dependent on a lot of factors.
I suggest you use the fly by wire a320 as it’s bounds ahead of the default… unless you’re on console.
Ahh. it’s broken. I never had this problem till the update.
Use the flybywire model. Either way if your throttles are correctly set in the CL position and your fmc is set up correctly, you should not have a problem. They stay in that setting until final phases of the flight, in some cases all the way until touchdown.
I suggest you look more into airbus operations to see if something you’re setting up is not right. If it’s the aircraft you think has the problem, download the flybywire and see if it does the same thing.
^ Second this. FBW all the way.
At the risk of highjacking a thread (my apologies to the original poster), I’m just going to add some info for you.
You shouldn’t need to do that.
You can use “Open Climb” for that. Click the bottom of the Alt knob.
Speed also plays a factor.
If you aren’t letting the MCDU assign the speed, and have pushed (clicked the top) of the speed knob and entered your own higher speed, it will struggle to climb.
The default version also has way too high of a climb speed setting, at times, from the MCDU.
It can’t go fast and climb at the same time.
Normal climb is 290 kts above 10000 feet, until about FL280, at which point it should be climbing at about .76 to .78 mach.
If your speed is set higher than that, it isn’t correct.
Click the top of the speed button and set the proper speed.
Your climb vertical speed will return.
Even with a full load the A320 is a pretty good climbing airplane.
Where are you seeing it displaying all phases of the flight?
In the FMC
I’ve been flying it perfectly since it came out. Manually take off, after a safe take if and at about 2500 ft I drop the levers to auto and fly in managed mode. At 10,000 ft I set the speed manually to about 280 and climb to cruise altitude. At Cruse I set to managed mode again It will usually go into cruise mode and fly at 285. It will then automatically go into decent mode and I decend at 240 managed. Now it just stays in climb mode the whole way. I don’t like the fbw, never have. I just don’t like the way it flies. Lay off me on this its a personal choice
So the MCDU doesn’t display the cruise page when you click on “Perf”?
That’s correct. It just stays in climb mode even after I reach cruising altitude.
I’m flying big brother (A330-900) right now, but in the AM tomorrow, I’ll take the default A320 out and see what I can find!
I’ll get back to you!
You didn’t hear me say anything about FBW
You shouldn’t have to do all that, just set everything on the ground and the only thing left to do is push the autopilot button after you take off…and the plane will do the rest. Take the advice and look more into how the autopilot works on the airbuses. Very smart yet simple system.
Not aimed at you but usually someone will jump on me for not liking the fbw haha. The default has been fine by me and I’ve had no problem flying it. It flies great. Of course the 320 climb speed is ridiculous but if I set the climb speed manually between 270.and 290 I never have a problem reaching cruise altitude. All my flights end up uneventful usually. Usually when I hear the engines spool down to descent speed and descent mode shows in the pref page it’s my cue to descend. May not be the exact way it’s done in real life but it works for me.
Yes, I was going to mention that to RC2018, because at that speed, the A320 can’t climb.
What I was wondering is, if in climb perf, as you are pre-flight programming the MCDU, is that speed adjustable.
You can’t change the managed speed, only selected. But I’ve only seen this work a few times where it will fly your selected speed at 10,000 ft. Most times it doesn’t work which is why I just switch to selected at 10000 ft and manually adjust the speed myself.
Well, I can confirm this is an issue with the default A320.
It doesn’t matter whether you use Managed or Selected speed.
The MCDU will not switch into Cruise.
I tried both ways, as well as the experimental version of the FBW.
The FBW does switch, the default does not.
I would enter a Zendesk request if you are interested in getting this looked into!
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