FBW A320 Descent AP

[dresoccer4 118]

Hey guys I wanted to check and see if anyone knows if any sort of autopilot descent works with the FBW A320? I’ve been trying to look it up but have been getting conflicting info.

I’ve seen some people say that a T.O.D is calculated and the plane will follow a descent path and others say you have to do it all manually which seems kind of crazy for an Airbus jetliner.

Anyone that flies the FBW A320 let me know what you know on the latest version. Thanks!

[Mike S KPDX 598]

Currently they are working on it, VNAV is not complete.  I use the Experimental version from their GitHub site with their auto downloader.

Here is what happens:

When at cruise level in level flight, you must manually start the descent to a lower altitude, I can be difficult to judge when but look on the EFB in the cockpit, there is a calculator to help with that.

• real aircraft - it will calculate a top of descent and display that on the navigation display, you must still initiate a descent manually.  
• FBW - no TOD display is shown (yet)

While descending,

• real aircraft - once descending will automatically calculate the best path, and will utilize 'geometric profile' for portions of the descent often with power and maintain route fix point altitude restrictions and speed restrictions. (see THIS)
• FBW - once descending it will go to a complete 'power to idle' descent, which can be quite steep, until it reaches the route fix altitude restraint and then power back up and level off and fly to that point.  Similar to 'stair stepping'

During approach segment;

• real aircraft - will display speed reduction points and the 'approach point' that when reached, will trigger the approach phase on the MCDU (FMS)
• FBW - this is not yet available.

So as you can see, some of the VNAV functions are available (fix restrictions) but all the other complex components are still in development.

Hope this helps

[dresoccer4 118]

2 minutes ago, Mike S KPDX said:

Currently they are working on it, VNAV is not complete.  I use the Experimental version from their GitHub site with their auto downloader.

Here is what happens:

When at cruise level in level flight, you must manually start the descent to a lower altitude, I can be difficult to judge when but look on the EFB in the cockpit, there is a calculator to help with that.

• real aircraft - it will calculate a top of descent and display that on the navigation display, you must still initiate a descent manually.  
• FBW - no TOD display is shown (yet)

While descending,

• real aircraft - once descending will automatically calculate the best path, and will utilize 'geometric profile' for portions of the descent often with power and maintain route fix point altitude restrictions and speed restrictions. (see THIS)
• FBW - once descending it will go to a complete 'power to idle' descent, which can be quite steep, until it reaches the route fix altitude restraint and then power back up and level off and fly to that point.  Similar to 'stair stepping'

During approach segment;

• real aircraft - will display speed reduction points and the 'approach point' that when reached, will trigger the approach phase on the MCDU (FMS)
• FBW - this is not yet available.

So as you can see, some of the VNAV functions are available (fix restrictions) but all the other complex components are still in development.

Hope this helps

gotcha thanks for the detailed response. guess i'll be flying this bad boy the old fashioned way