A320 speed control

1st Official Post

    I want to control the A320’s speed the way I used to before the autopilot update (I don’t care if it’s realistic or not).

    Since the update, the auto thrust comes on automatically and the autopilot defaults to managed mode, which may be more realistic but is utterly confusing for those of us who prefer simplicity over realism. I have tried disengaging auto thrust , reengaging it and right clicking the speed knob, but it keeps going back into managed mode or refuses to obey the speeds I set.

    Before the update, I would advance the power levers to full power manually at take off, engage the auto thrust shortly after after take off, then right click the speed control knob, and simply dial in whatever speed I wanted; is it still possible to do this now or use a simpler way of controlling speed that doesn’t involve managed mode?

    Thanks

    • Official Post

    Hi,

    Right clicking the speed knob just puts the autoflight system into selected speed which actually didn't work all the time before the autopilot updates. So it doesn't affect the autothrust directly, instead it just changes the speed target for the autopilot + a/thr from managed to selected. Nothing more nothing less.

    To put the autothrust (A/THR) into a mode where it uses the thrust to bring you to the desired selected speed you have to do a couple of things:

    1. make sure it is actually on (your thrust levers moved to clb)

    2. put it in selected speed (not managed)

    3. put it in speed mode

    1. First of all you need to make sure A/THR is engaged:

    A) If the PFD is not showing A/THR in blue in the top right corner already: click the A/THR pushbutton on the autopilot panel (FCU)

    B) Right click the speed knob and use the scroll wheel to set your desired speed

    C) Move the thrust levers to CLB to engage autothrust

    -> the engagement of the autothrust is indicated in the top right corner of the PFD: "A/THR" displayed in white

    2. Secondly you need to engage selected speed mode:

    A) Right click the speed knob to engage selected speed mode and set your desired speed

    -> in the top left corner of the PFD the autothrust mode now changes to IDLE / CLB / SPEED in green, this means autothrust is working and controlling the thrust output of the engines.

    3. Thirdly you need to put the autothrust mode into speed mode:

    if you are in selected speed mode that does not yet mean that autothrust is targeting the speed. During the climb or descent autothrust command either climb thrust or idle thrust, which is OK if you are following the flight director guidance or if the autopilot is flying. BUT if you are flying manually and you don't want to listen to the orders of the flight director you should engage vertical speed mode:

    A) either push or pul the vertical speed knob to engage vertical speed mode (which in turn puts autothrust into SPEED)

    B) or you set both flight directors to OFF: either left click the left FD and then the right FD button or right click either to set them both off.

    The power-on state of the flight directors is on and the A320 also automatically arms the CLB mode and NAV mode on the ground when ever it can. So the current behavior is pretty realistic, can be annoying but we are working on implementing an intelligent copilot that can assist you in these things.

    Regards,

    Jan