Project Airbus – Talk

Having a great time flying the A320 FD Special Version.

I have encountered an issue with autoland with this aircraft. On an ILS approach in APPR mode, the 'Retard' call is made at 10 feet above runway level and I reduce throttle to idle. The aircraft promptly powers up and climbs away. Should I wait until weight on wheels (i.e. runway contact has been achieved) before idle thrust is selected (so the aircraft is in a ground mode (does that exist?)), or do I need to switch off the autopilot/autothrust before touching the throttles?

Also, I have noted that at cruise altitude of e.g. FL310 (selected mode), the autopilot is 'roller coasting' slightly by about +/- 50 feet. At lower altitudes e.g. FL120 (selected mode) this doesn't seem to be a problem and altitude hold is rock steady. Is this a bug or have I not set things up correctly for the autopilot to operate effectively (and why should this be an issue at the higher altitudes)? The speed and heading are in managed mode.

Other than these niggles, I have grown to enjoy this freeware immensely and look forward to further developments (perhaps even the A380 brought up to a similar standard for FSX?).

Keep up the great work with this project!

I didn't develop this A/C, and I don't usually use autoland, but it looks like you should disengage autothrottle before moving the levers to idle. You could probably wait until touchdown to select idle thrust....but that isn't particularly realistic

I've encountered the altitude hold issue too--I vaguely remember the issue being somewhat mitigated by making the final ~1000 ft of ascent more gentle (rate of climb @ ~1000 ft/s or less). I think what happens is the pitch selected by the autopilot is too high, and as a result it overcompensates down, then overcompensates up and so on. If that doesn't work, try changing the pitch manually by disengaging the autopilot temporarily. And double check your fuel and weights to make sure there isn't too much of a deviation from a standard load, because that might cause issues for the autopilot (if you are tail or nose heavy...the pitching problems will continue).

Happy Landings!

When an airbus is in ALTCRZ mode this is called a soft altitude mode which makes slight changes in altitude to maintain speed rather then just using engines like when it is alt mode but this is in the real aircraft don't know if this has been incorporated on airbus in flightsim