I have only tested it twice, but both times I was able to fly IFR completely in the Cessna 172 w/G1000!
IFR pilots know, there was a really bad bug at play which make AP coupled approaches impossible. Specifically, when you are nearing the destination and ATC assigns an approach, when you activate the approach it used to insert a USER waypoint which was way behind you – and if you had autopilot in NAV mode the aircraft would turn back.
Making matters worse, you could not activate a leg beyond that – nothing worked. You couldn’t fly direct to the IAF to get around that USER waypoint. Well, you could, but still the legs after that USER path would never activate.
You had no choice but to turn off NAV mode and steer AP with the HDG mode, or fly manual.
I have verified twice that after today’s patch – this works as expected! Yes, the USER waypoint is till entered, but it is entered as the exact point the aircraft is in when you activate the approach – which is how it should work.
This make me very happy!
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Thank god. We are talking basic functionality here!
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This was terrible. Not only am I happy they fixed it but are slowly making people happy again, like I knew they would. This made my day. Haven’t loaded the update yet but I hope you enjoy.
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Pretty sure It was fixed in patch 2?
Can confirm, I’m glad this one is behind us now. Phew!
No. It wasn’t. Last time it didn’t worked was yesterday for me. So I’m absolutely sure it wasn’t.
Big improvement if true (update installed but can’t test due to work) but I’ll believe @CaptClarence125 
This happened to me a few times in the past. Happened twice when I was hand-flying a SID and decided to activate AP in the middle. Other times it happened during approach like OP says. Will test it tomorrow.
Yes, it wasn’t working for me either. We had a few workarounds like these:
However, what we have now is the way it should work. It was nerve wrecking when ATC assigned a different approach… we can chill now hehe
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That’s a relief. This was the most annoying issue with loading approaches into the GNS.
But can you do a direct to on any waypoint of the flight plan? Until yesterday I couldn’t
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hi, i don’t know exactly what you are talking about but i’ve tried a couple of ways to set a gps route/app and the only way it KIND OF works is through the menu before the flight. i tried today also after the patch and i set a short flight with a direct departure towards the IAF. the g1000 simulation for some reason creates an arc from my departure towards the IAF which i have not discovered how to bypass so far. if i select fpl, and do direct on the IAF (like in real garmin) to go directly to that waypoint without the random ARC nothing happens. If i select D-> and type down the IAF and select ACTIVATE another thinner pink line appears on the MFD but the AP/FMS/CDI still is following the ARC nav path no matter what. If i deactivate the AP and try to fly direct to the IAF expecting the ARC to dissapear after i managed to set the thinner pink line it still does not proceed with the approach and if i activate the AP again it will turn around to go and try to do the whole ARC again, which is absolutely absurd. If i delete the approach midflight and try to set it up through nearest-select approach etc, it will send me directly to my destination and no waypoints will be selected. having GPS IS CRUCIAL for a non precision approach like a LOC(unless u use VORs also), and not being able to do these things properly is driving me nuts. this is on the c172 g1000 plane btw. The flight i was trying to do was KCOI KTIX ILS36.
i have seen the clumsy youtube video and that is on the G3000, i don’t know how to replicate that procedure on the g1000, if someone does please enlight me. ty.
i am really frustrated btw 
I just tried an RNP procedure at a random airport using the VL3’s G3X.
The G3X’s autopilot menu still isn’t working so I was flying by hand and just checking whether the navigation system was improved.
When I entered an Approach, it still created an incomprehensible route with an enormous arc to join the IAF.
Pressing Direct to the IAF didn’t change the route.
However, pressing activate next leg did register, the magenta arrow on the flight plan and on the map changed, and the HSI did switch to the next leg, allowing me to follow the RNP approach course without having to fly the ridiculous user route.
So… I’d say partially fixed.
What I noticed last night toward the approach phase of a 4:25 flight was that the magenta line for each leg was two sectors ahead of my actual position. As my altitude dropped it would reset to the correct leg, then move ahead once again to two sectors in front.
This is new behavior.
It did not seem to effect my flight line, and I flew a rather uneventful approach to landing.
Just a quick update – further testing I have found that this bug is NOT resolved when flying the Airbus 320. In other words, you still can get a very poorly placed USER waypoint that takes you back, and you can’t really do anything at that point to get the approach to work correctly with regards to the legs activating, the flight director recognizing, autopilot flying, etc.
Alright, another update. In the C172 @ KBOS 27ILS I found it still inserts a poorly positioned USER waypoint, and AP wants to turn back to it. But yes, as @Mermoz4481 says, I was able to do a “Direct To” the IAF, which AP happily followed, and it gave me a pleasant surprise when the IAF was reached, the system then activated the correct next fix on the approach – instead of once again trying to go back to that USER waypoint.
So I do think things are headed in the right direction.
But if it were my call to decide priorities, this would be at or near the top of the list. Because the presence of this bug to begin with demonstrates the development team lacked real flying or flight sim experience, and that the bug persists this long indicates they put a low priority on IFR.
A flight sim in 2020 that does not model IFR correctly is hard to consider a true flight sim. It remains a great VFR flight sim – so long as you stay out of photogrammetry scenery areas.
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