FSX-MS My Aerosoft Airbus went a bit crazy

[marcus300zx 0]

Hi All,

 

Had an interesting flight last night, luckily it was virtual of would have been front page news today LOL.

 

My Flight was the return leg from LEBL Barcelona to EGGD Bristol.  I was flying high level airways at FL340.  About 10 miles from TOD as I could not get EDDG ATIS on my radio I looked at the map and saw the wind was in a SW direction.  Based on this I input on my MCD ILS9 as my landing runway and as my flightplan star was Berryhead, I input BRI2D as my Approach via BRI.  Checked everything was correct.

 

I was Flying Managed Speed, and Managed Altitude so at TOD I selected 1800 into my Altitude (My Final Height to Intecept ILS) and clicked for a managed descent.  Once I was able to contact Bristol found wind had changed and runway was now 27.  Changed MCD landing to ILS27, BRI2D and BRI.

 

Approaching the BRI transition, my plans was not as low as it should have been and wasn't making too much effort to drop faster (I was about 5,000 feet instead of 3,500).  I did notice that "More Drag" was being displayed even though the speed brake was fully on.  The Planes speed was actually very low (About 170 if I recall), bordering on a stall.

 

Carried on and then the Message that Approach Checklist would activate in 4.5miles.  Having only to turn back on myself I though the 4.5 miles was cutting it a bit fine on my landing so I pressed 1 to manually activate it (Nothing Happened).  I went to the MCD2 to activate it (it was green) but clicking on it did nothing.

 

I gave up and though I would let it activate itself.  However, as I turned to line up with the runway the message went from 2 miles to 15 miles to activate approach?

 

I manual lowered the flaps and wheels ready for landing and clicked approach hold button.

 

Then the plane went mad and accelerated to way over 300kts and climbed to about 10,000ft.  No matter what I did I could not slow her down without completely turning off Autopilot (Even If I switched off managed speed and selected a set speed the plane just accelerated.

 

Flew all over the place for a good 50 miles before switching off autopilot and manually slowing the plane and turning back towards Bristol.

 

Finally managed to select direct to EGGD27, lower the plane to 2,000ft for my 70 miles return journey, capture the ILS and Autoland.

 

I have not been using SIDS and STARS long as I have been flying VFR flights and getting the ATC to vector me in with no issues.  I landed yesterday on ILS9 from the same STAR with no issues, but today was weird.

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

Next time you do this or a similar flight, capture some screenshots from the stuff that is going on. The most important pieces of information would be your PFD in different stages of your flight, including the FMA.

 

Best way to go is to post the pics and your findings in the Aerosoft Airbus support forum, and to state which version you're on (latest would be version 1.30 with hotfix 1.30d).

 

There are a couple of known issues which may be related to what you experienced, but the screenshots would help a lot to get things sorted out precisely.

[lzamm 143]

Sure you didn't activate the Alpha Floor high AOA protection mode? - it should have been indicated on in the FMA, top left of the PFD.  You said you were slow on the approach.

 

 Alpha Floor engages TOGA regardless of thrust lever position and can only be turned off by turning off the autothrust system (which can then be turned on again).

[ubersu 78]

Make sure you are running hotfix 1.3c or 1.3e...

 

DJ

[marcus300zx 0]

I haven't upgraded to 1.3 yet, will do tonight. 

 

I think it may have activated an auto missed approach go around?

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

I haven't upgraded to 1.3 yet, will do tonight. 

 

I think it may have activated an auto missed approach go around?

 

 

Try version 1.3 "with the fixes" but *PLEASE* keep your current installer safe for the time being, as v1.30 might not yet be as reliable and issue-free as the version you are using. (Hope you are on v1.21.)

 

As lzamm mentioned TOGA LK could have been triggered, which feels like manual TOGA when performing a go-around.

 

When you see this happening again, take a screenshot and/or take a look at the FMA: It should eventually display TOGA LK, when caused by the automation, or TOGA, when the thrust lever has been pushed forward manually.

[marcus300zx 0]

I think it may have been TOGA LK as the levers were in correct position and I do recall seeing something on the screen saying TOGA which is why I looked down to see of I moved the throttles.

 

No idea why the Approach Checklist distance jumped up further than the airport was away.  I was flying using the correct MCDU information and not being vectored in by ATC

 

I did have quite a bit of turbulence on approach I though initially it damaged the plane but no alarms were sounding.

 

How do I slow the plane on a managed descent if its going too fast, the engine power is idle, speed brake is fully deployed and the screen still ask for more drag?

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

Any addon plane should be able to copy with moderate turbulence. Stronger turbulence is a problem for many addon planes because Microsoft had modelled it in an unrealistic, exaggerated way.

 

Significant turbulence could have put the Airbus into TOGA LK, that's entirely plausible.

 

For the APPR C/L distance: The current Airbus version has issues with several jumpy indications on the ND, for example pseudo waypoints like DECEL, end-of-descent arrows and the like. There could be a common cause for that kind of issues, so I would not worry too much about the jumpy C/L distance right now.

 

The 'MORE DRAG' message can be erratic in the bus; is your problem about the message not going away, or rather about the bus not slowing down when you want it to?

[marcus300zx 0]

I think the speed issue was due to the way you land at Bristol in a sort of a number 6 shaped approach.  You fly directly over the centre of the airport, then downwind of the runway and then turn back on yourself to land.  Quite a bit of the final approach therefore had a heavy tailwind 

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

The tighter your upcoming turns and the stronger the wind, the slower the speed should be before flying those segments. If you see them coming, activate the APPR phase. When the bus has settled at green dot speed, you have ALL the options of lowering flaps, lowering the gear, and extending the speedbrake.

 

Oh, and you should try a steep approach into London City in the A318.   B)

[marcus300zx 0]

I was thinking I should avoid adding the BRI transition in for a RWY27 Approach from Berryhead?  I find the Bristol charts a bit more confusing than the ones for the other airports I land at.  The Spanish ones seem nice a fluid.

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

Have you tried setting CONF1 on downwind after BRI?
 
That would be my attempt, according to:
http://www.smartcockpit.com/aircraft-ressources/Airbus_A320-ILS_Approach_Landing.html

and taking into account the upcoming U-turn for the localizer interception

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

Tried with a 30 kts wind along the runway centerline (so 60 kts difference in groundspeed from downwind to finals) and CONF1 did the trick.