Unusual Nav Display

[Brossardjoe]

I can prepare a flight plan and fly the route using the Asobo A320neo without any difficulty, using only the MFS World Map’s Flight Planner. Until recently, I used to be able to do the same using the FBW A32NX (and Headwind’s A330-900neo, for that matter) but, for a few days now, I find I’m no longer able to fly the FBW A32NX and A330900neo aircraft as easily as I could earlier.

My problem is that, after programming my FBW A32NX flight using High Altitude Airways and using the MFS World Map Flight Planner only, I find that the display is not as it used to be. After taking off and continuing on runway heading, I’m unable to get the aircraft to follow my just-prepared flight plan, even after switching the heading knob to managed mode.

Instead of the normal, sinuous lines that go from the departure airport to the arrival facility, as shown in my attached Asobo A320neo screenshot, the flight plan appears as a detached straight line angled in a south-west – north-east direction. (See FBW A32NX Nav display screenshot).There’s no direct line between my departure airport and the first waypoint (Agluk), there’s only a straight green line from my departure runway to a point that reaches and continues on the other side of the flight plan line. As a result, even though everything appears normal on my panel, the aircraft never turns toward the first waypoint; it continues straight on runway heading and crosses the flight plan’s green line without turning to follow it.

My screen shots show my unusual FBW A32NX Nav display, my A320neo flight plan display and my MFS World Map’s Flight Plan, which was set exactly the same for both aircraft.

On many occasions, I have flown the FBW A32NX using a Simbrief plan after programming it in the MCDU and these flights always worked beautifully, with perfect flight plan following, but I have not tried this procedure since discovering the present Nav display discrepancy; I find it quicker to demonstrate MFS to a friend using just the MFS Flight Planner. I have searched the forums for Navigation display errors but could not find anything pertaining to what I’m seeing. Since I have no way of knowing if what I’m experiencing is unique to my PC or to my MSFS installation, I figured I would ask experienced simmers among you what could be causing this strange Navigation problem. As an aside, I made sure the Autopilot was turned on, all MFS assists were off and utf-8 is on in control panel’s Region section.

Thanks to those of you who took time to read this too-long post; maybe I should just post screenshots with a question mark?

[N316TS]

Hello,
For things regarding third-party aircraft and mods, please use Third Party Addon Discussion. I have moved your post there.

[Brossardjoe]

Thank you. I really have to read more about the site and its guidelines.

[N316TS]

No worries at all!

[bucsgolf142293]

In the middle picture the route is constructed properly.

In the top one the route has a direct to the airport and the it looks like the other waypoints are after you get to the airport or there’s a “discontinuity”.

Most aircraft like the FBW and other top-tier addons do not really support flight plan accuracy from the MSFS world map page. This is just something you’ll have to become accustomed to in the sim.

[Brossardjoe]

Thank you. The middle picture shows the Asobo A320neo and the top one is the FBW A32NX. Per your suggestion, I will fly the FBW aircraft along the route tomorrow morning using a Simbrief/Navigraph flight plan in the MCDU. I will report back here with the results.

[WaiseBesen9926]

As far as I know, this is neither a navigation display error nor is it unique to your PC or to your MSFS installation:
The FBW A320 and the Headwind A330-900neo simply do not support inputting a flight plan via the MSFS World Map flight planner any more. This is why you see the unusual route on the ND.
You now have to load a flight plan directly from Simbrief or type it in manually yourself.

[Brossardjoe]

Thank you for your replies, forum members. I spent half the night reading documentation in the FlyByWire website in an effort to see what could be wrong. This morning, I loaded the FBW A32NX in the sim and loaded a Simbrief flight plan in the MCDU. Somehow, the flight plan on my Nav display did not look right as there was no green line between my Departure airport and the first waypoint. I took off for my destination airport anyway to see what would happen. First off, I noticed ATC had not received my flight plan and I had to take off on a VFR send off. Once aloft, with AP and AT active and Heading and Speed in managed modes, the aircraft went around in a wide circle but eventually headed for the first waypoint. Reaching that, the AC followed the green line but, about 40 miles from the destination airport, the AC appeared to veer off the flight plan. There was again discontinuity between the last waypoint and the destination airport (no green line between the two.) The upshot was that I had to land the AC manually.

My screenshots show my AC before and during the flight. The first one shows my Flypad, the second one the MCDU, the third one shows my Nav display upon leaving the gate and the fourth screenshot shows my Nav display as I was close to my destination airport (with my AC beginning to veer away from the flight plan line.)

There must be something I’m not doing properly but I don’t know what; all I know is that I used to fly the FBW A32NX easily between the two airports, either with a Simbrief flight plan or without one. I’m using FBW’s Stable version 0.8.1 but I silently wish I could revert to an earlier version; for me, anyway, the earlier versions seemed easier to work with. I wonder if I would have the same navigation problem if I went from the Stable version to the Development one? Unless somebody advises strongly against this, I will switch versions.

[Brossardjoe]

I’m still unable to fly the FBW aircraft properly because of the way Nav info is displayed.

I uninstalled the FBW Stable version yesterday and re-installed it but I was still unable to use Nav when flying. I followed that by uninstalling the Stable version, re-starting my PC and installing the Development version. Unfortunately, I see no change in the way my Nav image is depicted (Discontinuity between departure airport and first waypoint and another discontinuity between my last waypoint and the arrival airport.) As a result, I’m unable to get my AP to work normally with the flight plan. It does not seem to make a difference whether I use the simple MSFS flight planner or if I load a Simbrief plan through my MCDU.

Just in case I’m not programming the MCDU correctly, does anybody know if there have been changes made in the way Simbrief flight plans have to be programmed in the MCDU?

[BobbiCanada]

If you have ‘Route Discontinuity’ in your flight plan, have you tried selecting it and CLR to remove it?

[Brossardjoe]

Hi, thanks for your interest. Can you elaborate just a bit on what you have in mind? Do you mean pressing the CLR in the MCDU ? and, if so, when? Before MCDU programming? Or, to the contrary, are you talking about getting a completely new Simbrief flight plan and trying to fly using that? I would appreciate if you could let me know exactly what you think I could try to resolve my problem. Thank you.

[mdapol]

You should read up on how route planning is done IRL. Sometimes you want to remove a discontinuity in your flight plan to let the autopilot fly properly. Sometimes you leave the discontinuity because the IRL procedure is to expect ATC to tell you where to go to continue the flight plan. Since MSFS doesn’t have ATC that can do that, in the second case you would just do a “Direct To” (the DIR button) to the next waypoint after the discontinuity. You can do this whenever you want.

The FBW flight system is working perfectly. Assuming you imported the route from SImBrief correctly (using the INIT REQ in the AOC menu AND the INIT REQ in the FMC menu) and filled in all required information for the autopilot to work correctly.

You might want to watch a video or two showing how to do this, since that is easier than trying to explain the intricacies here.

[Brossardjoe]

Right. Thank you for your insight. I’m no pilot but it looks like learning real life procedures seems to be called for here. As well, I guess there’s nothing for me to do but to take another look at the numerous videos about MCDU programming I watched after the new Microsoft Simulator came out.

What I find annoying in all of this is that I used to be able to fly the FBW A320 fairly easily during the sim’s first year on the market, whether I was simply using the MSFS world map flight planner OR whether I flew after first obtaining a Simbrief flight plan and implementing it in the AC’s MCDU. I was able to complete many flights successfully and I remember feeling pretty good about my being able to learn as complex a procedure as getting a cold and dark FBW aircraft started, its MCDU programmed with a Simbrief plan and the A32 NX in the air and following the flight plan I entered! All the way to the destination runway, with my AP and AT working perfectly. Wow, what a thrill! Well, I see now I patted myself on the back too soon as something changed at some point for me in the last few days, I don’t know what it is or if an error on my part somehow corrupted my MFS installation. It’s evident I still have a lot to learn.

Thanks for reading me; my quest for a fix goes on, as I really enjoyed flying the extraordinary FBW product.

[mdapol]

I don’t think you did anything wrong. FBW has been improving the 320, making it more realistic and more complicated so what worked before may not be enough now. Just practice and study and you’ll get it.

[Brossardjoe]

Well, I’m ashamed, and with good reason. Turns out that, during those last few days when I experienced so-called problems, I was simply failing to get my Simbrief flight plan loaded properly into the FBW aircraft.

After MSFS opened, I failed to click Space-More followed by Space-Load/Save and that was my error. The minute I realized this, I was able to see my flight plan, highlight it and open it; when I did this, the fine FBW aircraft duly showed my flight plan correctly in its Nav display once I clicked ‘Ready-to-fly.’ I flew a few routes and I was able to fly both FBW’s and Headwind’s heavy without difficulty.

The whole incident was my fault and no blame attaches to anyone else; in hindsight, I was under the mistaken impression that due to some recent change I had read about, flight plan loading had been made more automatic. Long story short, it’s evident that my programming of the MCDU had to be incomplete and erroneous since that complex instrument was missing crucial info. Well, my bad.

My thanks go to all of you who chipped in to help. This stuff is a wee bit complicated for a non-pilot. The only real plane I ever piloted was as a flight school student in 1950 and dad was paying for my lessons. (I lasted three lessons only as Laurentide Aviation was in Cartierville, 25 miles away and I had to get there and back on my bicycle.) The trainer was a Cessna 120 without radios or flaps. The tower guided us in and out by flashing red and green lights at our aircraft. No FBW A32NX that!

[Brossardjoe]

I’ve started using the flyPad OS3 and I wonder if I’m doing it right. I’ve programmed it with a Montreal-Quebec City flight, after preparing a fresh CYUL-CYQB Simbrief plan. I started the simulator and inputted CYUL as the Departure in the World Map, that’s all. I didn’t even load/save the Simbrief .pln file, I just hit FLY.

Despite that, when the flight opened and I clicked the Flypad, my flight appeared (I didn’t even have to click the blue ‘Import’ button as I had set the Flypad to import automatically.)
If this is not the proper way to get started, I would love to be corrected.

That new Flypad has great functionality; calling the power truck and the jet-bridge, for instance, or getting rid of the wheel chocks and clearance cones is now easy as pie. The designers outdid themselves with that one. Question: I’m worried about getting my Simbrief-FBW MCDU integration right, is a comprehensive tutorial available?