VNAV A320 Stock

Was doing a quick flight last night from Manchester to Paris and had the A320 in managed mode with the autopilot set to FL360. The plane reached top of climb and then transitioned into CRZ as it normally would. I left the FL at 360 since if I changed it, it would immediately decend (VNAV is not working properly as we know)

The flight was normal and I wasn’t paying attention, and the engines spooled down and the plane transitioned into DES at about the right place it would need to. The plane didn’t descend since I still have the autopilot on FL360.

This seems to be new…I’ve never seen the plane do this quasi VNAV sort of thing. I’ve always had to manage descent on my own. Anyone else notice this?

If VNAV was working properly, I’m assuming that at the top of climb, you could dial down your FL to whatever your ILS would need and the plane would take care of itself, right?

It seems that VNAV will sort of work, but not really entirely. Other times it won’t work at all.

Hope I’m making sense…

No, it will not descend unless you dial in the new altitude, and click one of the descent modes.
The speed probably cut back as that is determined by “approach” mode activation, which is automatic when you are within the specified distance.

From my experience the A320 in MSFS “managed VNAV” is basically behaves like using OP DES mode. You dial in the altitude, and when you press the knob, it will immediately go into DES mode without waiting for TOD. It targets the same airspeed as in your Des phase as calculated in the MCDU.

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Thanks for the reply. I do know that APP will switch over automatically at the DECEL point, but what happened last night was it switched from CRZ to DES on it’s own. First time I can say I’ve seen it happen. It happened nowhere near the DECEL point.

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Do you have any pilot assistance settings on?
They have been known to get turned on by MSFS without user knowledge.

Yes, that’s the way I understand it. Seems to have a mind of it’s own.

No, all that is turned off. That was causing all kinds of issues.

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I’m on xbox so can only fly slock A320 and since SU8 I have noticed the same thing but it’s not consistent. There are lots of improvements to the stock A320 in SU8, one of them being finally showing proper ALT constraints. On approach I have set the ALT in prep. to descend to next waypoint constraint and I swear sometimes it will go into DES mode without me pushing anything when it passes a waypoint. This definitely never happened pre-SU8. I’ve never had any pilot assistance settings on.
A320 with 4simmers liveries is a joy to fly now on xbox (someday I’ll get a PC and see what I’ve been missing with fbw320)

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If we can get the VNAV situation fully straightened out on the stock A320, I’d be a happy camper I think.

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Well, fully functioning VNAV isn’t even available on the FBW A32NX yet, so I doubt you’ll get it on the default A320 on XBox anytime soon.

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Interesting, I just finished up another flight from Manchester to Belfast, and again, the plane engines spooled down at the top of descent. This is definitely new since SU8. The constraints themselves are not working, but at least the plane knows when to start descent phase, so that’s a definite improvement.

Does that exactly what the airbus does in real life? From my understanding Airbus don’t “descend on its own”. The pilot still needs to input which altitude they want and engage the managed descent. Without it, the aircraft will still cruise at the same altitude even after it passed the TOD.

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You’re right. The plane doesn’t descend until ordered to do so, but it does enter into DES mode at TOD and the engines spool down to the descent speed set in the MCDU. Definitely new…haven’t seen it before.

Has anyone else noticed the same or have I just not noticed it before?

The TOD point is not in the MCDU and I have no idea where it is during the flight. I just wait for it to happen which is definitely not correct

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Have you rechecked your AI assistance to make sure it wasn’t turned on by MS without your knowledge.
It sure seems like it.

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OK, I’ll look into that. You may very well be right!

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Just checked and the only assistance I have on is radio communications.

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I was flying the A320 pretty extensively before/after SU8 and as soon as I joined Beta for SU8 things changed noticeably. Much more powerful climbing, proper constraints shown in MCDU and the enter into DES mode as you observed.

I actually wouldn’t want it to be fully automatic VNAV descent like there is in G1000 Nxi (the only mod available to xbox) as I like having more things to pay attention to on approach including manually doing proper descent alt. I’m pretty happy with A320 as my go-to airliner as I fly mostly GA planes.

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I don’t fly any GA. All I fly is the Airbus. I’ve started to dabble with the 747, but I’m not a big fan of the Boeing autopilot.

Even if you set to Selected OP DES the engine would still spool down anyway, because it’s still targeting whichever airspeed that was set. And on descent, the only way to maintain the airspeed without over-speeding is by spooling down the engine. I’m not sure why this is a new thing, as the default A320 has always done so since launch.

You’re right. I dunno, this whole switching modes on it’s own seems different since the update. Maybe I just haven’t noticed.