It takes so long to descending and climbing 
1 Like
What rate is it climbing/descending on your system? What altitude are you trying to achieve?
I usually keep my vertical speed around 1500-2400 FPM as that is about average for the Airbus on commercial flights. Cargo flights or deadheads you can go up to 3000+ FPM as you wont have to worry about your passengers getting uneasy due to abrupt air pressure changes.
At times when Iâve engaged managed altitude mode Iâve seen it go as much as 7000 feet per minute. Way too steep imo.
I was descending from 16.000 ft to 5.000 ft at 270 knts more or less
Ok so coming into your approach altitude.
270 kts is about average Iâd say.
My advice would be to throttle back all the way to idle, avoid flaps but definitely engage the autobrake system and Set it to high. That will slow your speed and allow for a faster descent.
Also note that your wind conditions could have an effect on your descent as well.
About how long would you say it takes to descend?
a few minutes man, yesterday was everything ok, wworking pretty well, today i dont know whats wrongâŠ
270 kts is about average Iâd say.
My advice would be to throttle back all the way to idle, avoid flaps but definitely engage the autobrake system and Set it to high. That will slow your speed and allow for a faster descent.
The autobrake system relates to the landing gear and has no bearing on airspeed in any way.
270 kts is also too fast below FL10 or 10,000 feet in most places, unless you have ATC clearance. The aircraft should go into idle thrust automatically on descent, unless you manually select a vertical speed that requires thrust to maintain a set airspeed.
About 2-3,000 feet per minute sounds about right for a descent. In the real aircraft you would descent at a relatively high airspeed to allow higher descent rates and then reach a deceleration waypoint at which you would nearly level off to slow down to your speed constraint at about ~11,000 feet. Not sure this is simulated currently.
2 Likes
I didnt know that about the autobrake lol. Thanks for letting me know.
1 Like
Generally speaking, your climb performance will depend on your payload. A commercial airliner is usually designed for passenger comfort and fuel economy, so of course it wonât climb like a fighter jet.
If you want to have a more agile experience try flying shorter legs that require less fuel and take on less passengers and cargo. During the pandemic this should be quite realistic anyway. 
You can also throw realism out of the window of course and just climb at Vy (best rate-of-climb speed) to cruise altitude. But you would have to look up the speeds for your giving weight somewhere. Likewise you can pick any descent rate that doesnât overspeed the airframe, because itâs a game.
Your choice entirely and no need to fly too realistic if you want to experiment a bit.
If anything, the A32NX climbs and descends too fast. Itâs always operating in Open Climb or Open Descent mode. There is really no Managed Climb or Descent mode since that requires a lot of computation and coding that does not exist at present.
At a âtypicalâ descent rate of 2000-3000 fpm, that descent will take between 7 and 12 minutes. Which is definitely more than the âcouple of minutesâ you seem to be used to. It sounds to me like the aircraft is behaving exactly as it should, given the current simulator limits.
2 Likes
I find that descending from cruising altitude down is happening really fast. But still reasonable. Itâs only when youâre below 10,000 feet and youâre approaching the runway is where the descent rate slows down considerably. I had to make use of spoilers and sometimes flaps to slow it down so I can give myself some more room to descend.
That makes sense since the aircraft automatically slows down below 10k. Are you activating approach mode as you get close to the airport? Are you descending according to the STAR restrictions?
At least Iâm trying to descend according to the STAR restrictions, but it just wonât descend enough in time. The best way I can do it is to actually start descending on my top of descent and start descending early using the managed descent and ALT CSTR mode in the FMA. But that would mean my ATC will get angry.
I just hate that the ATC is designed to talk as if youâre in a Cessna GA and not adjusting for the fact that youâre in an airliner and give descent instructions at the right time.
I have so far not had any problems waiting for ATC to tell me to descend and then letting the AP handle it. Like I said, the A32NX descends much faster than it should and I almost always hit the restrictions correctly. And I seem to have no trouble slowing down either. I donât know why you are having a different experience. Have you tried removing all mods other than the A32NX and seeing if that fixes it?
1 Like
I think itâs just specific on the dev version of the mod. But donât ask me to move it back to the Stable version, because I like the dev version a lot more.
I can manage the descent just fine if I make a few adjustment in my approach style. If I donât think I can make the constraints in time, I just switch to selected heading mode, do a holding pattern while I keep slowing down and descending. By the time I feel itâs right, Iâll reengage managed heading nav mode to rejoin the flight path again. But itâs just annoying, thatâs all.
Or I can deliberately pick a very long STAR. so I can start my descent earlier and give enough room for me to descend and slow down.
For climbing I know it takes a long while to climb depending on how you set up the Cost Index in the MCDU, the higher the value, the more emphasis the aircraft will take to get to your destination faster, thus making you fly a lot more forward than it does climbing up to cover more grounds in shorter amount of time. So the climb rate slows down, and that makes sense. I have no problem with the slower climb rate.
For the climb, especially with a heavier load and a higher cruising altitude, I donât move the throttles into the âauto-throttleâ zone until it getâs to cruise altitude. If it loses too much momentum, the flight computer seems to fail to regain it enough to get up there. For the descent, itâs always a mess. It has to do with the speed setting not syncing properly to allow for the AC to descend. As though itâs trying to slow the plane, thus descends at a crawl, or sometimes just stops descending at all. I use the spoilers on each leg of the descent and that helps you get down faster, in preparation for ILS approach before itâs too late. ATC makes it worse because if you are not at your assigned altitude, it wonât instruct you down to the next leg of the descent, further delaying everything. I think the entire autopilot needs refining to a large degree, on many levels (no pun intended.) The ILS is on point though. No complaints there. I always select my runway in my flight plan rather than âautomatic,â and if you set your speed at 140 when capturing the glideslope, itâs quite on point.
You should never pull back the throttle to auto-zone in the first place. This is the proper thrust lever position on a normal flight:
- Take off using either TOGA or MCT detent. Use TOGA for short runway, use FLX/MCT for longer runways.
- When you lift off, wait until the FMA is showing THR CLB in blinking white text. At this point, you move the thrust lever back to CL detent.
- Leave the thrust lever alone at CL for the rest of the flight, donât move it away. Keep it at CL even on descent, approach, and even on short final.
- You would only pull the thrust lever away from CL straight to IDLE when youâre about to flare and touchdown on landing.
Just for clarification, the CL detent is the correct auto thrust position/zone.
Above that, e.g. MCT, isnât an auto thrust mode, and below CL you are limiting auto thrust.
Thanks for clarifying that. I must have misheard a tutorial I chose at random that emphasized the throttles being in the âauto-throttleâ zone. Iâve always leaned Boeing when it comes to the flight controls and AP, but the 748 behaves terribly still and I donât have the 78X package. We really need some good, third-party devs to make a 737 & 777 fam pack. Airbus has a different method of take-off thrust/climb-thrust thatâs always been a bit foreign to me.
Yeah, itâs understandable if youâre coming from a boeing experience. The entire concept is completely different and you have to approach it with an open mind.
That being said, I find flying the airbus a lot more enjoyable to me than a boeing. I donât think I would want to fly a boeing in the sim anymore. I would want to buy an A350 for the long haul flights I want to do, but for the short haul flights. The A320 Neo with the A32NX mod is perfect for me.