3 hours ago, JSmith2112 said:

What I'm saying is that in the A310 you can literally reach top of climb and immediately dial in a lower altitude and arm the descent. The aircraft will continue the cruise at your previously selected cruising altitude until TOD is reached and without requiring any further action from the pilot, it will initiate the descent.

And JSmith, contrary to my previous response to this thread where I said “Airbus always Pilot initiated, Boeing always FMS initiated”, after reading your response I took a ride in the a310 and guess what.  You’re correct and I’m not. 

Well, even at my age I’m still learning new things (or divesting of previous held misconceptions)! 😇😇😇

-B

Edited November 23, 20223 yr by btacon

Even though profile descent is not perfect, it will respect speed restrictions in the flight plan. Also, climbing in profile mode will prevent critically low airspeed when transitioning from KIAS to mach.

I just flew into Bahrain, OBBI using the SOGAT1 arrival and the ILS RW30R approach.   Talk about a circuitous arrival, I wonder why it snakes all over the place?  Probably to avoid flying over Qatari airspace.

I applied some of the things I learned in these threads and the inibuilds videos and things went ok.  For a few moments I wasn't sure if I would capture the GS or not, but it did.  It has a rather low capture at 1500 feet and I would imagine if I had better Bahrain scenery (there is payware of the city skyline out there) it would have been a little more sceneic approach, but I had my hands full anyway and wasn't there to enjoy the view.  I found the landing a bit floaty which is a first for me, my previous 5 or 6 landings didn't float.  Perhaps my Vapp was higher than it should have been.

One big issue for me has been that the A310 in 95% of cases calculates the T/D point some 400NM before arrival. It is kind of unreliable so FLCH has been my go-to. 

4 hours ago, btacon said:

And JSmith, contrary to my previous response to this thread where I said “Airbus always Pilot initiated, Boeing always FMS initiated”, after reading your response I took a ride in the a310 and guess what.  You’re correct and I’m not. 

As the Aussies say, no worries mate. 😁

I took a quick ride myself before posting to confirm the behavior.

I'm reminded of this video by Mentour Pilot

Airbus A320 MISSED Airport by OVER 100 miles, WHY?! | Northwest Airlines Flight 188 - YouTube

Forgot to add: P.DES should show in blue on the FMA if you have the TOD descent armed.