Thanks Deano1973,
So it’s normal behaviour then, my mistake.
What about the reheat effect I asked about above? Should I see the reheat effect extend out from the back of the exhaust like on the F15 model?
Thanks for clarifying, I didn’t realise it was on the HUD but then I can’t really see it as I’m on Xbox and playing from a sofa on the opposite side of the room.
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Oh yeah, the afterburner is more realistic in the F-16 as the long flame only appears at dawn, dusk or night. F-15 is the old way and will soon be updated likewise, F-14 has already been done but update is awaiting the new sound pack.
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Noticed the new afterburners, looking forward to the other jets updates. 
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Excellent, many thanks for the response. 
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What is this? Rubbing our noses in the fact that WE can’t produce smoke effects like this? 
Why can’t you produce smoke trails? The released version of the F-16 can do that - there’s a switch on the right side of the console.
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With so many interesting topics being talked about here, I would like to add an appeal for help.
While flying the F-16C with default settings after hot-start takeoffs and AP=Off, I usually (not always) encounter unexpected behaviors of the ALT Hold lever near the throttle, and the ALT Hold button on the right side MFD. These behaviors can be ignored or handled by extra steps, but for me they do interfere and cause confusion as described below.
Left side ALT lever
When changing altitude during takeoffs and flight level changes, the following often occur:
- The ALT lever flips On by itself, then becomes locked On
- Its On status is not displayed in HUD/HSI, probably because not actually On
- As a result of being locked, I’m unable to use it to capture current in normal manner
- Clicks to turn it Off are ignored (an extra step will unlock it, see below)
- At some point the lever unlocks by itself and becomes clickable, but still in On position
- After it unlocks itself, it can be clicked to Off as an extra step
- Whenever ALT is Off, it can be clicked to On, but then locks On again with same behaviors as above
Right side MFD ALT button
When using the MFD ALT Hold button instead of the ALT lever:
- Same behavior as above via the left side ALT lever
- Also the left side IAS lever flips On/Off each time MFD ALT button is clicked
- MFD ALT button tooltips can get out-of-sync with status of left side ALT lever after separate On/Off clicks of lever or button
Unlocking of a locked ALT lever:
- Adjusting target altitude down to zero will unlock the ALT lever
- Or flying to a +/- change of altitude of about +/- 1500 ft.
For me, the biggest impact of the above is the uncertainty of On/Off/lock status of ALT Hold when wanting to use it to capture current altitude, especially when using a controller switch for it. A lesser impact is the extra steps to see if locked or still locked, and adjusting target altitude if so.
Could be normal behaviors or bugs I suppose, but after searching for postings about this and finding none, I’m concluding my confusion may be caused by my insufficient understanding of how things work or supposed to work with these particular F-16 devices. Sure would like to know.
I’m hoping others here can fill me in. Many thanks if so.
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My tip: read the manual. just joking
If you scroll up you see my question concerning AP too.
If you want we can fly together and find it out
Hi Chester, if I’m not mistaken, you raised this same problem with me three months ago, however I’ll answer:
-
There are 3 switches right now in the F-16 that activate the altitude hold (not only the C), which as you have said they are one on the left console (doesn’t exist in the real plane so you should forget about it), another with three positions (AP on + ALT HOLD, OFF , and AP ON + PITCH HOLD, which is in the real plane, and will be the switch you should work with), and the last one in the MFD (which does not incorporate the real plane either but was added for convenience but is not a switch, it just do alt hold).
What is intended in the future is to leave only the real switch, to avoid this type of confusion. -
What you describe about alt hold is not a problem or bug, but the way vertical modes work internally in flight simulator. Whenever you activate autopilot, a vertical mode must be activated by default: Alt Hold, Vertical Hold, Pitch Hold, Att Hold or FLC (there must be one of them active, the same there must be one horizontal active between HDG, NAV, GPS, or LVL ). By default, whenever there is no target altitude defined, the default mode is Pitch Hold, while if there is a target altitude and it matches the current altitude then Alt hold will be activated automatically to retain that target altitude. You can’t disable it by any means unless you switch to another vertical mode, which could very well be V/S hold, or pitch hold or FLC (these ones only being possible as long as the target altitude is different from the current altitude in case of FLC, or zero in case of pitch hold).
The basic concept is that turning off ALT HOLD means switching to another compatible vertical mode in the current situation, so there must be another vertical mode that the autopilot can switch to but it won’t do it automatically if your target altitude already matches the current altitude. That’s why the autopilot relies on alt hold.
That said, you can switch from alt hold to VS/FPA maintaining 0 ft/min or 0º, or switch to FLC or V/S when setting a target altitude (the first one will focus on maintain a desired Speed over V/S and the second one will focus on maintain a desired V/S over speed), if you are in alt hold and you change the target altitude and don’t change to any other mode, the aircraft should climb or descend to the new altitude automatically at a default vertical speed of 2000ft/s but if you want pitch hold, you need to reset the target altitude to 0, other way is not possible.
in short, as long as there is a defined altitude and that altitude match with the current one, whatever the vertical mode is active, it will finally switch to alt hold automatically once target altitude and current altitude matches (hence that lock you observe in the left switch). I hope it solves your doubts.
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Had a great flight around Geneva this morning.
On another note, can someone tell me what they call the air brake in the controller setup page? I can’t seem to find it, would like to add a keybind for it on my Hotas One. Thanks
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i think its the spoiler axis
Thanks, will try that
It’s Spoiler Toggle, that’s what I use.
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Airbrake/Spoiler should be Y on the Hotasone … Default
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Jack, back then I didn’t know enough to understand the content and impact of what you said. This time I do.
After learning how to use the autopilot in the F-14, I expected the F-16’s throttle levers to operate in same manner. They did not, thus my first request for help. Your response to it got me past the lock issue and back on the learning curve. After seeing so many multiple favorable postings by others about the F-16’s AP and no complaints, I became convinced that something was wrong at my end, thus my second appeal for help.
Your response to it is a great help, especially your comments about how the various components interact. Also your comment about the three-way switch being real (and not the separate AP/ALT levers) finally convinced me to use it, not the levers. I should have discovered this earlier. My son is a retired USAF career fighter pilot with many years as an F-16 mission pilot and IP. Early on I had asked him about the F-16’s autopilot. He said it had one, rarely used it, but handy during cross country flights. I had an opportunity then to find out more but didn’t try, I didn’t know enough then to pursue the topic. Next opportunity we get, we will discuss such things in depth with MSFS/F-16 on a screen in front of us.
Anyway, I will use the three-way switch for altitude holds, and start down the path of learning how to use it in conjunction with all other related components as you suggested.
I’d like to ask a related question. When using LOC or LNAV (with NAV/GPS=NAV, a tuned VOR station, and AP=On), it appears that they perform in the same manner to approach and join the radial/course. Are there situations in which one does something different than the other, or is preferred over the other?
Thanks Jack. Once again you responded quickly with feedback that educates, so valuable.
And thanks to eltoppolino for the offer.
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Heya, I can help a little with the performance issue, The single seat F-16 has very stable FPS everywhere though the dual seat F-16’s are somewhat inconsistent and tend to suffer from stuttering particularly when flying at low level and most noticeably when in a banked turn. This is on Xbox Series X.
(Edit) turning off FLIR makes the Dual Seat varients totally FPS stable again. Though the single seat F-16 is not performance impacted by FLIR at all.
Also any chance we can have visible pilots in cockpit on Xbox? 
There shouldn’t be any reason for this, however, MSFS now draws only what the users sees, and as such when in the rear seat it’s drawing both cockpits at once rather than the one. The FLIR is a processor-heavy display like most digital screens, so my guess is that’s the reason for the slight loss of performance when in the back seat with the FLIR also running.
Visible pilots will indeed be coming with a future update.
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about this you ask me, NAVGPS, LNAV, LOC, BC and APPROACH are all LNAV modes, but of course there are differences.
LNAV with GPS and LNAV without GPS must be differentiated.
NAV with GPS allows you to follow the Waypoints established by a flight plan, precisely by GPS coordinates, disabling the GPS would activate the VOR mode in which you tune the nav frequencies and through the CRS knob you have to correct the plane’s course so that it goes to those VOR stations.
LOC mode allows you to capture the localizer to align the plane with the runway for final approach but without capturing the glideslope. Backcourse mode is the same only in reverse (you may want to use it if you are approaching the Localizer from the opposite side). The difference between using LNAV versus LOC or BC is that in LOC or BC you don’t have to adjust the CRS.
It means that the plane will try to reach the Localizer automatically. But is recommended that you do it at a certain distance.
Finally, we must mention the approach mode, which is necessary to capture the Glideslope during an ILS landing. There are two main types of approach, non-precision or RNAV and precision or ILS. The RNAV would follow a glidepath provided by the GPS and the ILS is by radio frequency provided by the airport antennas (for which you must be in vor mode with the corresponding ILS frequency and APP active). The ILS allows you to land manually, land with autopilot following the GS, or land with autopilot and autotrotthle (this last is known as autoland). Our planes support it.
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