FSX-MS BBS Airbus Widebody MCDU - what's it doing now? :D

[HighBypass 2,339]

I decided to create a flight from Air Greenland's hub in Kangerlussuaq with their only heavy - the A330. I created a plan using https://flightplandatabase.com/ in FS9 format. This is so that it can be placed n the company routes folder and I can then load it into the MCDU. I used the BBS Pre Flight Manager to load up pax and fuel quantity.

Because the route was not understood by FSX, I just took off on my merry way then activated flight following . All seemed to be going well, the jet was following the green line until it got to the lat/long coord. waypoints over the north Atlantic, prior to reaching Iceland. It then proceeded to do a u-turn  . I managed to delete the waypoints and somehow went direct to the next labelled intersection. Upon reaching the waypoint it then proceeded to circle around... what is this T/C labelled in white? Top of Climb? I'd been cruising at FL390 for hundreds of miles already!! I managed to go direct to the next waypoint but again the plane circled around, not quite a holding pattern as it was a circle, not an oval.

Note that I have completed a couple of flights importing the FS9 format files. I had one where I loaded up the FSX format into the sim for the default ATC to "understand" too, but not this time.

...sigh.. I'm not a real 'Bus driver, nor is this a real 'Bus... any ideas please?  (dons flameproof outfit...) How far removed is the MCDU from the functions of the real one??

[scianoir 610]

Hi Mark,

I don’t have the BBS A330 so I can’t comment on the function of its MCDU but I have the Aerosoft A320 series and the MCDU on that pretty closely follows the function of RW Airbus MCDUs as far as I can see, although it too is not without the occasional hiccup! Although I have flown the Aerosoft A320s quite a lot, I have never used them on a transatlantic flight where I have had to input lat/long coordinates into the MCDU so I can’t say why you had the issue on reaching these waypoints. I do know however that when entering lat/long coordinates into a Boeing FMC, the entries have to be in a certain format so perhaps that might be where the problem lies. Maybe the format of the waypoint coordinates in the imported flight plan did not suit the A330 MCDU. Although I use flight planning utilities to create flight plans I usually then manually input the flight plans into the MCDU/FMC myself rather than importing the plan directly.

With regard to your other query, you are correct in that T/C on a navigation display normally means top of climb, although on the Aerosoft A320 ND top of climb and top of descent are indicated by symbols called ‘hockey sticks’ - arrows with a bend in them adjacent to the track display to indicate levelling out or starting descent. I think that is the conventional Airbus way of indicating these points on the ND. The fact that the T/C occurred hundreds of miles after levelling off at your cruising FL however certainly suggests that something was amiss in the data inputted into the MCDU!

The Airbus systems, as you know, generally can be a bit of a mystery at first and it certainly took me a long time to learn to fly them in the Airbus way but once I orientated myself away from the more conventional systems that I was used to, flying the ‘Bus became intuitive and enjoyable to the point that they are now my ‘go to’ airliners for short/medium haul flights.

Bill

[HighBypass 2,339]

It turns out that operator error was to blame in respect of the circling behaviour. I was using the DIRECT command wrong. I should have pressed the DIR button then pressed the corresponding button for the waypoint I wished to go direct to. Somehow, if I selected the waypoint first, the HOLD command was next to the same LSK (the middle one on the left). I suspect that hitting DIR put the plane in a hold pattern...  

However, I do have this "mystery" Take a look at the flightplan - it is now a dotted line trhough the lat long waypoints. I had let the plane fly along without trying to get it to go direct to any of those points.

I went DIRECT to a named waypoint and the plane followed the flightplan once it had got to that waypoint  - no circling 

Does the display mean that the sim itself doesn't have those waypoints? I have Navigraph up to date, yet the MCDU give a nav database upgrade "error" in orange text when aligning the IRS..

I got the flightplan from here my usual go-to: https://flightplandatabase.com/

Strangely enough the default FSX planner did not acknowledge the plan despite my downloading it in FSX format AS WELL AS FS9 (for the BBS MCDU company routes).

Another strange occurrence was that another flight plan site I use: http://onlineflightplanner.org/ Could not find ANY routes between Kangerlussuaq and Copenhagen in either direction... 

As well as the Bermuda Triangle, perhaps there is a GIUK triangle too? (Greenland, Iceland, UK gap) 

Got me flummoxed this has!