If you haven't flown the FBW A320 - then you really should!

[highflyer2020 607]

Like many of you I have been a die hard Working Title fan for the last 6-9 months, ever since they implemented their own flight plan manager I have not flown anything else. I tried the FBW early on but the the default A320 it was built on was so horrible to fly, it would just sky rocket on take-off and and you had no idea if it would actually follow the flight plan. Also the performance was horrible, I could only get 15-25FPS and it would s stutter frequently.

So I recently decided to try it out again and wow it's so much more solid to fly than it was before. I suspect a combination of Asobo fixing a lot of the underlying flight plan glitches and a ton of hard work from everyone at FBW with the autopilot and programming the other systems in place.

It's a joy to fly like it feels really really solid I can comfortably fly it on VATSIM , I don't worry about rocketing of course anymore  & I can even accept flight plan changes without worrying it's going to do something stupid.

I can't wait for proper lateral and vertical guidance that will just bring it to another level, but until then the current FBW A320 is amazing and you really get a feeling of flying a proper airliner. 

I wrote this because I saw a few people post in another thread they were not going to fly it because of no custom LNAV/VNAV and I too was one of those people but now that I've tried it I realised I was missing out and there's a lot more to flying this machine than just having a TOD/TOC appear correctly! 

Edited April 18, 2021 by highflyer2020

[DAD 2,650]

Absolutely agree. Fly primarily the experimental standalone version and love it. BTW, FBW works with WT to implement the custom AP of the CJ into the neo

[Mike S KPDX 597]

"Like many of you I have been a die hard Working Title fan for the last 6-9 months, ever since they implemented their own flight plan manager I have not flown anything else."

I follow these guys and have their latest stuff, but I have to ask - what custom 'flight plan manager'? - or are you talking about the FMC.

[highflyer2020 607]

Just now, Mike S KPDX said:

"Like many of you I have been a die hard Working Title fan for the last 6-9 months, ever since they implemented their own flight plan manager I have not flown anything else."

I follow these guys and have their latest stuff, but I have to ask - what custom 'flight plan manager'? - or are you talking about the FMC.

So WT developed a flight plan module that is completely separate to the default FS navigation system. This allows the aircraft to fly highly accurate LNAV/VNAV paths without the limitations/bugs of the default planner.

An example being, early on there was a bug in every aircraft where if you did a DCT/DIR to a waypoint it would basically go back to your first waypoint or fly in a circle. The WT flight plan manager does not have this bug. Another example being the default FMCs often miss a lot of SID/STARs but the WT one almost always has all of them & with the correct waypoints because they are able to directly read the nav data in a better way.

[duckbilled 310]

5 minutes ago, highflyer2020 said:

So WT developed a flight plan module that is completely separate to the default FS navigation system. This allows the aircraft to fly highly accurate LNAV/VNAV paths without the limitations/bugs of the default planner.

An example being, early on there was a bug in every aircraft where if you did a DCT/DIR to a waypoint it would basically go back to your first waypoint or fly in a circle. The WT flight plan manager does not have this bug. Another example being the default FMCs often miss a lot of SID/STARs but the WT one almost always has all of them & with the correct waypoints because they are able to directly read the nav data in a better way.

Has FBW implemented this in the experimental version? I've always had trouble figuring out what features are included in each version.

[SierraDelta 1,341]

18 minutes ago, duckbilled said:

Has FBW implemented this in the experimental version? I've always had trouble figuring out what features are included in each version.

Not yet. Just follow their Discord to stay up-to-date.

This page (linked from Discord) shows the state of the Experimental branch and is updated every time there's a new version:
https://github.com/flybywiresim/a32nx/blob/experimental/docs/README.md

[highflyer2020 607]

19 minutes ago, duckbilled said:

Has FBW implemented this in the experimental version? I've always had trouble figuring out what features are included in each version.

No it's still very very far away from what I can see in their discord channel. 

 

[Gilandred 690]

I’m in the same boat.  After having not flown the FBW in months, I decided to take the experimental version out for a spin.  CYYZ to CYHZ down to minimums in the rain.  It’s fantastic!  I too thought I needed managed descents, but after flying the also nice Aerosoft CRJ, I easily “managed” without it.

A few things stood out to me.  First, performance.  As you can see from my specs I have an older machine, and even out of Toronto the frames were decent.  Second, the FMS and features (weight and balance, simbrief integration, weather requests) put this up there with FSLabs features.  And lastly, that custom autopilot is like butter.  Well done to the FBW team!

Edited April 18, 2021 by Gilandred

[Ricardo41 5,948]

32 minutes ago, Gilandred said:

put this up there with FSLabs features.

Boy, did you just chum the water.🤣

[bendead 1,085]

35 minutes ago, Gilandred said:

And lastly, that custom autopilot is like butter

That's a good word for it. 😉

[Farlis 2,281]

1 hour ago, Ricardo41 said:

Boy, did you just chum the water.🤣

You rang? 😉

[omarsmak30 4,068]

4 hours ago, DAD said:

FBW works with WT to implement the custom AP of the CJ into the neo

They are working to implement the custom flightplan into the FBW mod. The custom autopilot is entirely done by Andreas from the FBW team.

[captain420 3,099]

I love the FBW A320 but ever since the H135 Helicopter came out, I have been flying that solely and gotten so addicted to it.

I'm going to wait until the FBWA320 gets the full custom AP, LNAV/VNAV, decoupled MCDU's and the custom flight planner before going back.

[Langeveldt 279]

Too much of a frame/stutter hit.

Don't get me wrong, it's a superb plane, but with its depth has come choppiness..  I reluctantly fly the default A320 which is smoother..  very reluctantly. 

[MattNischan 3,778]

9 hours ago, Mike S KPDX said:

I follow these guys and have their latest stuff, but I have to ask - what custom 'flight plan manager'?

We implemented a completely custom flight plan system which is separate from the sim. It uses the raw navdata and parses the procedures on its own, with much more accurate leg placement. It also has a ton of features that the stock sim plan system doesn't:

Altitude termination legs, vectors legs, proper discontinuity placement, the ability to alter approach legs (insert, add, delete, move), the ability to change your arrival or approach while already on the arrival or approach with correct routing, correct direct-to handling to any leg (even approach legs), mandatory hold legs, no more USR or USER waypoint nonsense, missed approach parsing and segment handling, and some more little bits and bobs.

-Matt