Help me understand the A320's

What is the difference between A320’s in the sim; default, A320 addons, FBW mods, etc. Which is the latest and which should I have installed?

The FBW A32NX is a third party plane. It’s significantly better than the standard Asobo A320. If you want a good airliner then the FBW A320 is the way to go at the moment. You can download the installer from their website and they have a very helpful Discord.

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Thank You. But I know one of the FBW mods is an addon to the Asobo default A320 and another is a complete FBW addon aircraft. Also, where does the A320x and the A320neo fit into the list?

The FBW is a separate aircraft. It is an A320neo. An a320neo has a different, more efficient, and quieter engine than a standard a320, but otherwise basically the same. (Neo stands for New Engine Option). I would avoid the Asobo one completely and only use the FBW one. Very easy download using the installer. Feel free to message me if you need any help with it.

Both the Asobo and the FBW are A320NEO’s.
The FBW is not an addon to the default Asosbo one.
It is a standalone version.
The “nx” is also often added to the end of the FBW version, as in FBW A320nx.
I believe nx refers to NeXt generation, which implies the NEO version.

There are three different versions of the FBW.
Stable, Developer, and Experimental.
Here is a link to their website that will explain the differences.

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Here’s a bit of a history lesson:

Initially there’s only the A320neo that Asobo created and shipped as part of the sim on launch.

A number of the flightsim community feels that the default A320neo is not as realistic as we would have hoped. So they get together to form a team to improve on the default A320neo.

They release the first FlyByWire A32NX mod. That is basically overriding the default A320neo. So when you have this installed, you’re still seeing only one aircraft on the selection screen. Only the Asobo A320neo. But when you fly it. It would have been improved with the mod.

Now, since Asobo delivers frequent updates to the sim. The original A320neo is still their responsibility. So they made improvements and updates of their own. However since the FBW A32NX required the original base A320neo to work. These updates to the base aircraft causes a lot of issues with the mod.

So after about half a year, they decided to make the FBW A32NX to be a separate aircraft. That way, they can continue to work on improving the aircraft separately without being affected by any updates made by Asobo to the default A320neo.

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I’ve found that the FBW mod is phenomenal for ultimate realism, as was the goal. However, I find it a bit to task-intensive and overwhelming for just booting up the sim and killing some time on a quick flight. I use both, but I find myself gravitating towards the default one just because I can handle some of the realism (startup, some basic FMS setup, etc) without having to deal with every single bit of prep work a real pilot does.

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Thanks for a very detailed and helpful post :grinning:

You have the option to set allignment,self Test, boarding and fuel load to instant, so it shouldn’t take so much time.
But for me with all set to real, it’s about 30 minutes to have the aircraft ready to go

Thank you for you detailed explanation. I think I’ve got it now.

Good work! I can get it down to about 15-20 including real time passenger boarding. But after flying the FSLabs on P3D for years I’ve had a lot of practice!

Just a thought, and obviously totally up to you how you use the sim, but when you don’t have so much time for set up and just want to get going, try a different kind of flying?

Get a little bush plane and go and explore some backcountry places?

Save you A320neo for when you can devote the time to it and really take the time to do all the procedures properly and double check everything, it will give you great joy when you have the time to fully immerse in it.

Like I say just a thought!! It’s your sim!

For me normaly my freetime during the week doesn’t allow me to make 2 or 3 hoir flights.
So normaly what i’m doing when the time is not sufficent, is that i practice. So i then do traffic patterns. With Athr, without Athr, with crosswind to get practice and learn to handfly the Airbus

I appreciate the detailed answers and suggestions. Thanks to all.

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Thanks for the detailed input, man!!!

By another hand, would you be able to indicate me which might be causing the continuous and fast BEEP after turning off engines and -which I guess is- switching off everything? If I press ALT + B, lights and everything goes out, and the Sim offers me to restart or to continue, but would like to get into this point by pressing the specific sequence of switches.

Any kind of input will be really appreciated. :slight_smile:

You can disable that end flight page by going to your Assistance settings, under Piloting (I think) and turn off the End of Flight option at the bottom. By turning this off, you won’t see the end of flight page when you turn off your engine.

As for the beeps, you might have turned off the engines without having to have the APU turned on after landing. Generally after you’ve landed and vacated the runway, you should turn on the APU master ON and APU Start. It will take some time but the APU will start up and will provide you with backup electricity once you turn off your engine at the gate. Without this APU running, you might lose all electricity when you switch off your engine.

You can watch my videos on my post-landing sequence. I am using a tool called FS2Crew to simulate a first officer with me, so after landing and I vacate the runway, you’ll hear a few clicks by my first officer to start up the APU. Once I parked the aircraft at the gate, you can see the sequences on how I turn off the engines and the parking checklist. My first officer is responsible for switching on the APU after landing, and turning off the Fuel Pumps after I cut off the engines.

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Does it happen when the jetway connects? Might be the door warning.

Thank you so much, man!! I’m pretty sure this is the reason, just tried once but am confident that with more practice will work as expected, as I’m still not sure if bateries 1&2 should be turned on or off while parked and with APU started, the same with the APU Bleed, the red buttons on the thrust leveler and black squared buttons on both sides of the Engine Mode -I’m using the Thrustmaster TCA Quadrant.

Why the training lessons on this Sim are that basic for commercial airplanes? Most people, like me, enjoy using and learning to use these kind of aircrafts mainly… :rage:

Personally, would love to see the entire process of preparation of the aircraft, at least just thru an animation sequence where me as a user can only see the “backstage”, or a camera from a passenger’s view boarding, or a typical fan recording TO/landing from their window, or from flight attendant’s vantage point, I don’t know… this is a Simulator -one of the expensive ones, which creates high expectations, as it’s price!-, not just another game, and this is made by Microsoft, not by newbies on the entertainment software industry!

Does somebody agrees with me?

Thought about it but as far as I can remember, this happens only once turning off both engines and external power; will pay attention to what you mention as well. Doors open ONLY if I request the jetway, right? and, do you know why the jetway disconnects itself without apparent reason? Thanks!

I always keep both batteries on at all times. It’s the first two switches I turn on at the start of every flight before turning on the other switches, and it’s the last two switches that I turn off at the end of the flight after all my passengers disembark and all the other switches are turned off.

APU bleed is turned on as soon as the APU is running stable, and I keep it on until both engines are running. Then I turn off the APU bleed and the APU master. Then my F/O turns on the APU master after landing, and turn on the APU bleed when parked before I switch off the engines.

The red buttons are only used for disengaging Auto-Thrust, so I’m not sure why this is relevant. The two black buttons I just set them to “Cockpit Upper View” so I can have better visibility of the ground marshall when I was about to park (as shown in my video above). And the other black button I use it for my PACX tool to open my passenger status.

I agree, but in-depth quality such as that requires time, effort, skills, and talent. For now, this is what we get.