I've been flying the A320NX for a while now, always turning on AP1 after positive climb once I've cleared the runway. Auto pilot until I'm on the ILS or have visual then land manually. 

I'm wanting to improve my knowledge of the aircraft

Here's a few questions, if you can reply referencing the number I'd appreciate it.

1. What is the LOC button and where/when do you use it?
2. What is the EXPED button? again where and when does it get used?
3. What is ADF?
4. Does RNAV arrival work in FBW yet?
5. How does one fly a VOR arrival at NZAA? I can't find any VOR markers or charts. See the link below. I can only find the approach charts.

https://www.aip.net.nz/document-category/Aerodrome-Charts

 

To answer some of your questions:

EXPED is expedited climb or descent. The aircraft will ignore speed limits to climb or descend as quickly as possible.

RNAV does not work yet.

I believe LOC is used for localiser only approaches, I.e. no glideslope.

I’ll answer what I know… 

1. The LOC is used if you want to track an ILS only in lateral mode. It’s basically APPR without the up and down.

2. No idea what EXPED is.

3. Automatic Direction Finder. Old tech that is being phased out. I can’t imagine a moderne airliner would use it.

4. Yes! On the experimental build. Quite well for me. 

5. There are no VOR arrivals. Arrivals are typically a series of RNAV waypoints but could include some Intersections that are VOR based. 

Edited April 20, 20224 yr by haskell

42 minutes ago, NZAA said:

I've been flying the A320NX for a while now, always turning on AP1 after positive climb once I've cleared the runway. Auto pilot until I'm on the ILS or have visual then land manually. 

I'm wanting to improve my knowledge of the aircraft

Here's a few questions, if you can reply referencing the number I'd appreciate it.

1. What is the LOC button and where/when do you use it?
2. What is the EXPED button? again where and when does it get used?
3. What is ADF?
4. Does RNAV arrival work in FBW yet?
5. How does one fly a VOR arrival at NZAA? I can't find any VOR markers or charts. See the link below. I can only find the approach charts.

Hi, in realworld A320 the Autopilot is turned on as you do, or at least at an altitunde above 700 feet. The Autopilot usually stay ON while the approach until you are arround 300 feet above the runway. (100 above call). So let the AP do all the work, that´s what it was designed for.

1. LOC stands for Locator, which is the lateral beam of a runway centerline. So if you follow the LOC you are on the runway track. It can be used, to align the aircraft onto the Runway direction before you start the final decent on an ILS glidepath. Both signals together represent the ILS of a runway. LOC is the lateral and the glidepath beam is the vertical reference. Usually you don´t need to use the LOC button in an A320. Once you have reached the approach fix, you just use the APP button and turn on AP2 additionally. The Aircraft will then align to the LOC and start the final decent at the final decent fix automaticly. 

2. EXPED stands for "expedite" climb/decent. It is usually used, if you need to increase the actual climb or decent rate, if atc ask you to do so, or you would need to change you FL because of a traffic conflict. What it does is, that at the climb phase in an expedite climb, the energie of the aircraft would go into climbrate, and the aircraft would even lower it´s speed down to green dot speed, to give the advance to the climb.

3. ADF stands for "automatic direction finder". This system uses one of the oldest and soonest Beacons which where implemented for instrumental navigation - the NDB (non-diractional-radio- beacon) This NDB is similar working like a lighthouse, but with a radio beacon instead of a light beacon. The ADF is it´s counterpart in the cockpit, where it shows always the direction to the NDB signal in relation to you actual position. If you have 2 seperate ADF in a cockpit you would be capable to triangle navigation.

5. What do you mean with a VOR Arrival. An arrival is just a specific standard path you can follow, and contains GPS coordinates and/or VOR and NDB and FIXes on that path, where VOR´s NDB´s are just used as waypoints within that path. 

 

Edited April 20, 20224 yr by BerndB

28 minutes ago, haskell said:

4. Yes! On the experimental build. Quite well for me. 

Don't think so. VNAV works in the exp build but RNAV isn't there yet. 

11 hours ago, NZAA said:

 

1. What is the LOC button and where/when do you use it?
2. What is the EXPED button? again where and when does it get used?
3. What is ADF?
4. Does RNAV arrival work in FBW yet?
5. How does one fly a VOR arrival at NZAA? I can't find any VOR markers or charts. See the link below. I can only find the approach charts.

LOC is an abbreviation for LOCALISER. Typically, when flying an ILS approach, you get the aeroplane lined up within about thirty degrees of the runway heading, then select LOC so the autopilot then locks onto the LOC signal and lines up with the ILS system's runway localiser signal which is usually allied to the runway's magnetic heading. For full ILS approaches, you would typically line up using the LOC capability of the autopilot, then fly into and under the glideslope signal, and just as you come under it, you engage APP on the autopilot, so that you are getting both Localiser guidance (LOC) and glideslope guidance (APP).

EXPED is an abbreviation for EXPEDITE CLIMB. It dismisses other autopilot and engine constraints to increase the FPM rate so the target speed is the green dot speed. It isn't fitted to every A320 and even when it is fitted, some airlines do not permit pilots to use it because of the strain it can put on systems in terms of wear and tear. It is used in the climb phase of your flight.

ADF is AUTOMATIC DIRECTION FINDER. You can tune into a (typically) NDB (non-directional Beacon) on your radio and you will hear a morse code signal which confirms the NDB's identity, and the display will show the aeroplane's relative bearing to that NDB. They can be used to determine your location, or for (limited) guidance in non-precision approaches.

Yes RNAV does work, but I think only on the latest version.

For any arrival type, you consult the relevant airport chart and follow the instructions on that chart. Depending on the arrival type, you might have more or less navigational aids and assistance options. What these are and how you use them, plus your aeroplane's capability, the visibility and the crew's certifications and currency, determine what kind of approach it will be and whether you can fly it from a legality point of view.

 

 

 

Best advice, watch some of the tutorial videos out there, made by real airbus pilots:-

 

18 hours ago, tup61 said:

Don't think so. VNAV works in the exp build but RNAV isn't there yet. 

How so? What is it lacking?

1 hour ago, haskell said:

How so? What is it lacking?

Er... the entire RNAV part? You can't do an RNAV approach as you can in real life. Of course you can load an RNAV approach and fly it manually or by 'aiding' the AP but you can't do a proper RNAV approach (using APPR mode and such). At this moment only VNAV is (being) implemented.

EDIT
Hold it, I stand partially corrected. 😉 From the FBW Discord: Question: "Does exp support RNAV descent yet?" Answer: "only the LNAV component of it, you can use FPA-3.0 to fly the glide path until RNP VNAV is implemented too". But well, the glideslope part of RNAV is huge part of RNAV of course. The LNAV part was already possible without the VNAV support, so...

Edited April 21, 20224 yr by tup61

Regarding RNAV-Not sure what I'm missing here?

It seemed to be working quite well for me.

 

1 minute ago, skully said:

Regarding RNAV-Not sure what I'm missing here?

It seemed to be working quite well for me.

 

The HOLD feature is not RNAV .. 

4 minutes ago, skully said:

Regarding RNAV-Not sure what I'm missing here?

It seemed to be working quite well for me.

 

Good for you but FBW themselves state RNAV isn't (fully) implemented yet so... you must be using some sort of work around? Official real life RNAV approaches aren't possible yet, so they say.

The hold was added to the RNAV approach.

Edited April 21, 20224 yr by skully

2 minutes ago, skully said:

The hold wad added to the RNAV approach.

You can LOAD an RNAV approach and indeed add a hold but you can't fly the entire RNAV appr in managed mode yet.

14 minutes ago, skully said:

The hold wad added to the RNAV approach.

.. I highly suggest you educate yourself as to how exactly an RNAV approach is carried out on the A320. As Tup61 stated .. in Managed mode.. Im not talking about using the bird and manually setting your descent angle either from the final approach fix.  I'm talking full RNAV capability.

Or at worse .. confirm your assertion that the FBWA320NX has this feature with FBW themselves. And if they themselves tell you that the AC is fully RNAV capable (both Lateral and Vertical aspects (not to be confused with VNAV)) then apologies are in order.

Edited April 21, 20224 yr by Maxis