Airbus 320... WOW!!!

Quote from J van E

A huge thank you to Jan (and the rest who may have worked in this)! This is what I was hoping and longing for! And I didn't even give the other planes (and the Dash) a try!

I'm very happy to read this, thank you for honoring our work. I've spend several 60 hour weeks on this autopilot and finally the day has arrived where I see happy faces and know it's been worth all the struggle and hours. Thank you!

Quote from J van E

I couldn't disable the AP (1 and 2). Of course the AP disbaled themselves as soon as I steered of the runway (well done too!) but I was wondering if this is a problem on my side or not.

The Airbus flight crew operating manual said the FCU is locked when "LAND" is annunciated. Couple of the professors on my university said so as well and I have not had any experience myself so I assume the manual to be true..... So the FCU and AP masters are disabled, you can press what ever you want and it won't do a thing to interrupt the landing. Maybe it's unlocked again as soon as you land but that isn't documented in what I've read so far.

To disconnect the autopilot of the A320 use the assignable button commands for the autopilot disconnect. I think I had a version where you can click the sidestick as well, don't know if that is implemented in the public beta though.

Quote from J van E

Obviously it would be even nicer if the MCDU will get enabled at some time but as it is now I can fly the AIrbus exactly like I used to in P3D, in fact, to tell you the truth, it works even BETTER. In P3D I often had to use the speedbrakes at odd moments, slowing down sometimes was problematic, things didn't always work out well, but in Aerofly FS 2 it works flawlessly. As I said I only did ONE flight and it went perfect from start to finish!

That is great to hear, thanks!

Yes MCDU, that is one thing I also desire very much. Maybe I can get headquaters to give me this a the next task?

Quote from J van E

EDIT

O, one more thing I noticed: the green line of the flightplan on the ND sometimes disappeared. It once happened after going to the main menu because I had to check the map. The line was gone up to the TOD at that moment. Just before turning into the ILS I also had a loss of the green line at one moment. Nothing bad but at first I was afraid the plane had lost the flightplan somehow... Luckily I noticed, after zooming out the ND, the plan was ok in 'the distance'.

BTW Also like the RANGE CHANGE message... or was that one already in the previous version?

EDIT 2

FInal remark. Does the reverse thrust work (after landing)? Not that I needed it (the autobrakes did the job perfectly) but I was just wondering.

Flight plan is rendered only partially. Currently there is no better way for me then to check if I hit the current waypoint yet. And sometimes the current waypoint already switches to the next waypoint when you haven't even reached the leg yet. then the current leg is not drawn anymore and disappears. I can write a temporary fix or wait until the problem can be resolved in a much better way.

Range and Mode change are newly added, thanks

Reverse thrust should work and did last time I tested. It should also indicated in amber when the reversers are moving, then "reverse green" when they are fully deployed

The reverse has to be assigned in the controls as well. I have the xyzwhateverforgotthename throttle quadrant with three buttons that are triggered when I move down the levers. I use them for reverse, works really nice.

I can make it so that you can disconnect the autopilot by pushing the ap masters when you have landed. Even better: I'm going to ask all three Airbus captains that I know. One of them may be able to give me an answer. Or just test it next time they do a fully automated landing. When they already slowed down there is probably no harm in pushing the button on the FCU. Airbus must have thought about this and there two options: ap disconnects as it does in flight, ap remains on.

Quote from J van E

Ok, thanks, I will have to assign a button to the reversers then. If you ever find a way to enable doing this in the VC it would be great but this will work. (Come to think of it: if I remember it well this also couldn't be done in P3D in the VC and only with buttons...)

And yes, if the AP can be turned off in real life as soon as you have landed by simply clicking on it, it would be great if you could add this option. But if this can't be done in real life PLEASE leave it as it is! I am all for realism here!!!

Yeah I would like to be able to pull and move all levers, too. "requires changes in the camera-view panning" is what I've been told. It's not build in that easily I'm afraid but we really need this sooner or later. Also imagine to be able to move the flaps of the ASG29 slowly

Yes full realism only

I found couple of errors in the Aerosoft implementation of the A320 auto flight system. I've also found discrepancies between the much more advanced and expensive FSLabs A320 and the pilot operating manual. E.g. when you don't have any route programmed but have a V2 speed entered. My FsLabs A320 in FSX then allows me to engage OP CLB on the ground or SRS directly changes to OP CLB or something like that. Probably because no acc height is set or something... Who knows. The handbook lists as requirement for OP CLIMB: in air... Nobody is perfect I guess.

I also found mistakes in a so called "authentic" and "licensed" A320 simulator. So yeah. I guess nobody really knows what's going on in a real A320. And you never see any videos or reports when the Airbus is handled wrong. Its just not happening in the real world.

Without praising my own work too much: I think the simulation of the airbus autoflight system in the Aerofly FS 2 right now is fairly good. There are places where I know I can improve but the implementation allows for a lot of user mistakes without braking much. Have you ever taken off in the Aerosoft or FsLabs A320 without entering a route, only V2 speed or even without V2 speed? Ever taken off without FD and set it on in the weirdest situations?

Or ever tested the fly by wire in a low pass... I guess there are about three people on earth who know exactly how it should behave.

Quote from Jetjockey10

Jereon,

How soon can we expect the A320 Flight Tutorial to be updated to v2.0 using all of Jan's newly added features?

Who is Jereon?

You know the deal with deadlines and IPACS...

I'll try to improve the tutorial next week if Jeff doesn't beat me to it.

How detailed would you like the tutorials to be? Would you rather read over boring bits and long texts or can you live with short versions. E.g. if I say: Press "SPD" in the lj45 do you know what to do? Or if I write "engage AP" does everyone know how to do that? or should that be in the tutorial as well.

Quote from J van E

Haha, well, in all honesty the automated systems work so well that a tutorial like mine is hardly needed anymore! My tutorial was mainly about how to work around things that didn't work as they should but now everything does work as it should! And since this is an Airbus this means things have become easy! On the Steam forum there is a topic about an Airbus tutorial and it has two excellent posts that show exactly how it works. It is a piece of cake and things work flawlessly!

http://steamcommunity.com/app/434030/dis…40994956591260/

Check the posts of Hunin and IPACS's Jan! That's about all you need!

Guys calm down. By the time I answered your comment 2 new comments have been posted.

Thanks for linking to the steam thread, J.

- J

So you want short and long ones, well that is easy

Maybe we could have one beginners tutorial to explain what modes are and how to select a mode and engage the autopilot. Summarize all modes so that users know what modes there are. Maybe have a table to check which aircraft has which modes installed or so...

And then have a step by step instruction for the different aircraft out there. Have one large picture to label the buttons and point out the usuals like: heading knob, etc. but then directly describe how to fly from A to B or takeoff in a typical short flight.

Quote from bbrz

Of course? It doesn't disengage when trying to turn off the runway IRL.

I mean you can deflect the tiller that, I think, already disconnects the ap on the ground, if you step on the pedal that disconnects the AP (both not modeled yet but easy to add).

And if you lose your localizer (full deflection with valid signal strength) I think I've read that is also disengages and when your heading deviates more than 20 degrees on rollout I think it also failes the flight director, which in turn disables the autopilot.

I've modeled it this way: 20 deg off course or localizer deflection off scale while in ROLLOUT or LOC lateral mode -> fail flight director. This then disconnects the autopilot. So even if you tried real hard with differential thrust and disabling nose wheel steering the AP will disengage at some point. In the Aerofly you can just steer off the runway and then the AP will disconnect sooner or later.

Quote from bbrz

It's been almost 2 years since I've flown the A320 but I'm pretty sure that this doesn't happen (it doesn't on the 767 either)

That's one of the items FIs love to watch in the sim. After landing the pilot is trying to vacate the runway at his chosen taxiway but the plane continues straight ahead.

It would be bad IF the AP would disconnect in that case because CAT IIIB means just a single visible runway edge light and you definitely don't want the plane to veer off the centerline due to an unintentional tiller/rudder input!

Didn't J v E post the AP disconnects when trying to turn off the runway?

Well one of my airbus captain contacts just said that you can disconnect it with the pedals but it's not good airman ship. Since the AP is also using the nose wheel steering it might disconnect but I see couple reasons why it shouldn't (as you also mentioned). The tiller doesn't have an increased break out force when AP is connected to it might just not work then.

The A320 in the Aerofly disconnects when the localizer is deflected too far or when the heading and ILS course deviate too much. That usually happens when you turn off from the runway.