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QPAC A320-232 with Full Fly-by-wire V1.0 Quick Start Guide Version 1.04 from 29/09/2011 Valid for aircraft models version 1.0RC1 or higher
Record of Revision
Edition 1.0 1.01 1.02 Date Authors 10/12/2010 Torsten Liesk 15/12/2010 Torsten Liesk 13/01/2011 Torsten Liesk Affected paragraphs Initial release All Added Park Brake command Page 7 Added AP1/AP2 commands Page 7 Transponder manual Page 50-51 Additional info descent Page 33-35 planning Added plugin troublePage 6 shooting 3rd party software Page 8 compatibility Pages 9-10 A real quick start Constraints in CLB Page 11 ADIRU initialization Page 15 Take-off run Page 21 Page 29 SRS mode FINAL APP disengagement Page 32 A/BRK Max mode Page 50 Page 52 Transponder New managed speed profile Page 41 during the approach phase Modifications
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Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................... 5 Aircraft and Livery installation............................................................................................. 6 2.1 Screen resolutions ......................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Joystick button setup..................................................................................................... 6 2.2.1 Custom commands................................................................................................ 7 3 Compatibility with 3rd party add-ons .................................................................................... 8 4 A genuinely Quick Start........................................................................................................ 9 5 Flight planning .................................................................................................................... 11 5.1 Flight planning interface ............................................................................................. 13 5.2 Data entry into the right MCDU ................................................................................. 13 6 Aircraft startup and pushback ............................................................................................. 15 7 Taxi, take-off and initial climb ........................................................................................... 18 7.1 Take-off run initiation................................................................................................. 20 7.2 Initial climb................................................................................................................. 22 8 Auto flight system briefing ................................................................................................. 23 8.1 Auto Thrust System .................................................................................................... 23 8.1.1 Active vs. Armed Auto Thrust............................................................................ 23 8.1.2 Thrust limitation.................................................................................................. 24 8.1.3 Auto Thrust Engagement and Disengagement ................................................... 24 8.1.4 Auto Thrust Active Modes.................................................................................. 25 8.1.5 Managed and Selected speed targets................................................................... 26 8.2 Auto Pilot modes......................................................................................................... 27 8.2.1 Lateral guidance modes ...................................................................................... 28 8.2.2 Vertical Guidance modes .................................................................................... 29 8.2.3 Combined modes ................................................................................................ 31 9 Fly-by-wire briefing............................................................................................................ 33 9.1 Flight control behaviour.............................................................................................. 33 9.2 Flight envelope protection .......................................................................................... 33 10 Descent and approach preparation .................................................................................. 35 10.1 Descent initiation ........................................................................................................ 35 10.2 Descent monitoring..................................................................................................... 36 10.3 Descent pilot actions ................................................................................................... 37 10.4 ILS Approach preparation........................................................................................... 38 10.5 RNAV-GPS Approach preparation............................................................................. 39 10.6 Other approach types .................................................................................................. 40 11 Approach and Landing.................................................................................................... 41 11.1 Landing ....................................................................................................................... 42 11.2 Roll-out ....................................................................................................................... 43 11.3 Go-around ................................................................................................................... 43 12 Systems briefing.............................................................................................................. 45 12.1 ATA21 Air Conditioning and Cabin Pressurization................................................ 46 12.2 ATA24 Electrical ..................................................................................................... 46 12.3 ATA 28 Fuel System ............................................................................................... 47 12.4 ATA29 Hydraulics system....................................................................................... 49 12.5 ATA30 Ice protection .............................................................................................. 49 12.6 ATA31 Indicating and recording ............................................................................. 49
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12.7 ATA32 Landing Gear .............................................................................................. 50 12.7.1 Landing Gear Extension and Retraction System (LGERS)................................ 50 12.7.2 Braking system.................................................................................................... 51 12.7.3 Nose wheel sterring............................................................................................. 52 12.8 ATA33 Lighting....................................................................................................... 52 12.8.1 External Lighting ............................................................................................... 52 12.8.2 Internal lighting................................................................................................... 53 12.9 ATA34 Navigation.................................................................................................... 53 12.10 ATA36 Pneumatics.............................................................................................. 54 13 X-Plane failure mapping ................................................................................................. 55 14 Copyright and licensing .................................................................................................. 57 15 Appendix Abbreviations .............................................................................................. 58
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1 Introduction
There is a joke among pilots. How do you recognize an Airbus pilot? Hes the one who goes: Hey? Whats it doing now? And how do you recognize an experienced Airbus pilot? Hes the one who goes: Look! Its doing THAT again. With the QPAC A320-232 for X-Plane you have decided to fly the most realistic Airbus simulation on XPlane, so you might find yourself saying one of these two exclamations rather more often than you might like. With Version 1.0, the QPAC A320 provides you with a precise simulation of the Airbus Fly-by-wire system in Normal Law as well as highly realistic interaction on the Flight Control Unit. Hence, expect a steep learning curve, especially at the beginning. But it is absolutely worth it, as all the processes you will learn are similar to real life. The most important difference between a real Airbus and the QPAC A320 is the Flight Planning capability, provided by the MCDU (Multipurpose Control and Display Unit) and the FMGS (Flight Management and Guidance System) in the Airbus World. As this is a freeware product, the Flight Management is based on the X-Plane FMS, which provides much less functionality than Airbus MCDU and FMGS. However, we have extended X-Planes native FMS by features such as Fly-by vs. Overfly Waypoints and enhanced altitude constraints allowing the programming of more realistic flight plans. This Quick-Start guide has been written to help you getting started with the aircraft and understand the most basic features. Due to the high complexity of the systems, this short guide cannot explain everything in detail. For a more detailed description you can either check the original A320 Flight Crew Operating Manuals available on http://www.smartcockpit.com or alternatively, you can buy the A380 from petersaircraft.com. The A380 is equipped with QPACs Autopilot and Fly-By-Wire plugin and it comes with a detailed manual on the Fly-By-Wire, the Autopilot and Flight-Planning as well as many tutorial flights. This is also the right moment to say a big thank you to Peter Hager. He had a significant part in the development of this plugin and the awesome outcome. He performed sheer endless tests which helped ensure a high level of maturity for this code. He also helped a lot to understand precisely how the Autoflight system works. Without all the discussions we had on particularities of this system we could have never achieved this level of realism! Thanks Peter, it is a pleasure working with you! And now: Please fasten your seat and enjoy your flight!
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Plugin Trouble-Shooting: On some Mac-Computers, the plugin can not be recognized if the overall path to the plugin is too long. If the aircraft instrument panel looks screwed up on startup, although you left the plugin where it belongs, this is most likely what happened. To rectify this issue, reduce the name of the Aircraft to A320_QPAC. That normally does the job.
All other commands can also be done via keyboard commands if no more joystick buttons are available. The buttons above should be on the joystick, because these features are on the actual flight controls in the real aircraft, and the pilot can use them without taking his hands of the controls. All other commands, such as gear, flaps, spoilers are commands for which in real life you need to take one of your hands of the controls. (OK, in real life you got a co-pilot for those.)
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Most of the native X-Plane commands work well with this aircraft too. However for all autopilot related features, only the commands shown in the figure below are mapped to the respective PluginCommands:
AP Instinctive disconnect button A/THR Instinctive disconnect A/THR Button on FCU push HDG selector knob PULL ALT selector knob PULL HDG selector knob PUSH VS selector knob PULL
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It is partially compatible with the Goodway flight planner. By partially compatible I mean that you can generate your flight plan in Goodway as usual, however you will have to review the altitude information of each waypoint after loading it into X-Plane! Without this step you wont be able to profit from the enhanced flight plan features described in the next section. Issues with Simple Pushback: Simple pushback requires rudder deflections for steering the aircraft during pushback. As the engines are off during pushback, you will not have and hydraulic power available to deflect the rudder. A work-around for this is to switch on the Hydraulic Yellow Electric Pump during push-back. Dont forget to switch it back off after pushback. 3 party FMS programs: From V1.0Beta 5 on, the aircraft is compatible with UFMC 2.4 and vasFMC 2.10. Refer to the manuals of these products for use with this aircraft. The correct UFMC config file is included in the V1.0Beta5 distribution of the A320. Please do not modify this file, it is optimized for optimal integration between the two products.
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The lower half of the Engine Warning Display should look something like this, except for cabin ready, which is still partly blue. (We will ignore that for now.)
Select a sufficiently high altitude on the FCU (at least 3000ft above airport level) Release the park brake Move the thrust levers fully forward until MAN TOGA appears in the top-left corner of the PFD. Rotate the aircraft to a pitch attitude of 10 degrees at about 135kts IAS After lift-off: Follow the flight director to avoid getting too fast or too slow. Retract the gear Disarm the spoilers Switch off the nose gear light. Continue following the flight director or use the Auto-Pilot (for now)
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Now comes the absolutely crucial part: At about 1500ft RALT, the text LVR CLB will start flashing under the MAN TOGA box in the top left corner of the PFD. Move the thrust levers into the CLB detent. As long as a white text with MAN in the first line is apparent in the top-left corner of the PFD, the levers are forward of the CLB detent. In this configuration, the A/THR cannot work. (Want to know why? Read Section 8) If the text reverts to green THR CLB, you have correctly placed the levers in the climb detent. If the text reverts to green THR LVR, you are below the climb detent and should move them slightly forward again. As long as the text in the top-left corner of the PFD is green, the A/THR is active and works. It may be limited in its authority though, if the text is THR LVR. (Again, section 8 provides more detail)
Now you are at the choice point: Fly automatic or manual? Fly with Auto-pilot and Auto-Thrust: A/THR is already active due to the motion of the thrust levers from the previous item. To engage the AP, select either AP1 or AP2. To select the HDG the aircraft shall fly, click on the HDG-selector knob. The third column in the top-line of the PFD changes from RWY TRK to HDG. Now the AP will follow the Heading you adjust on the FCU. If you want the aircraft to get to a certain altitude and maintain it, select the desired altitude on the FCU and click on the altitude selector knob. If you want to fly a particular vertical speed, click on the V/S selector knob and then choose the desired vertical speed. To set the desired speed target yourself rather than using the automatic speed target, click on the speed selector knob and then adjust the speed target yourself. Fly manually using the Flight director with Auto-Thrust: Same steps as above, just dont engage the AP. Use your joystick to keep the flight director bars in the middle Fly manually without flight director and Auto-Thrust: For this case, it is best to turn the flight directors off completely. Press both FD buttons on the FCU (one for the captain, one for the first officer) so that the green bar in them extinguishes. Auto-Thrust will remain operational in speed mode. To select the target speed, click once on the speed-selector knob and select your target speed on the FCU. All other parts of the FCU are non-functional with both FD and both AP off. Fly manually without flight director and with manual thrust: Same as above, you just have to disconnect the auto-thrust. Click on the A/THR button in the FCU so that the green bar over it extinguishes. You will get a warning in the ECAM, which can be removed with the CLR button at the lower end of the panel
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5 Flight planning
The flight planning tool of the QPAC A320 is based on the standard X-Plane FMC. However, it has a couple of additions to it that I would like to present here. In X-Planes default FMC, you can only set waypoints (Either radio-navaids, airports, fixes or an arbitrary set of coordinates) and assign altitudes to these. In X-Planes VNAV mode, the airplane then flies in straight lines between the waypoints with a vertical speed that makes the aircraft reach the altitude of the next waypoint at the same time it reaches the waypoint. For the QPAC A320, we have extended this system by a few features to make it more realistic. The first feature is the definition of overfly waypoints. In real life, most waypoints are flyby waypoints, meaning the aircraft initiates the turn before reaching the waypoint in order to swing into the next leg without overshoot. However, especially in SIDs/STARs you often find overfly waypoints. At overfly waypoints, the aircraft stays on the track until it reaches the waypoint. The turn into the next leg is only initiated, once the waypoint has actually been passed. Fly-by waypoints with very strong changes in track direction can also lead to overshoot of the next leg, as the aircraft initiates the turn at the earliest 7NM before the waypoint.
Overfly waypoint
The second added feature is that altitude constraints can be classified as at, at or above, and at or below constraints. During the climb phase, the aircraft levels off at at and at or below constraints, until the associated waypoint is passed. At or above constraints have no impact on the flight profile. In real life, the aircraft will warn you, if a at or above constraint will not be met, but it is up to the pilot to take proper action to meet the constraint. During the descent, the aircraft levels off at at and at or above constraints. Analogously to the climb phase, there is no algorithm in place yet that ensures that the aircraft descends fast enough to reach the constraint when reaching the waypoint. Hence, at or below waypoints are ineffective during descent. In contrast to the climb phase, there are differences between at and at or above waypoints during the descent. When flying to or from a waypoint with an at or above constraint, the aircraft will perform a idle descent, i.e. the engines will be at idle, and the autopilot adjusts the descent rate to maintain the desired airspeed. When the aircraft is flying between two waypoints that each have a at altitude constraint, the aircraft will fly a geometric path that connects both waypoints on a constant slope.
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Pay attention not define these slopes too steep, otherwise the aircraft will build up undesired speed during the geometric path segment, as the engines cannot produce less thrust than idle! Use the speedbrakes, if necessary!
Descent initiation (requires pilot action!) FCU selected altitude Waypoints without altitude constrains Waypoint with At altitude constraint
Waypoint with At or below altitude constraint Take-off Climb Cruise Idle path Descent Geometric path Landing
The third added feature is the definition of Non-Precision Approaches. To achieve a valid Non-Precision approach, the following structure needs to be observed. The NPA section has to end with two waypoints, a Lat/Lon Waypoint defining the coordinates of the runway threshold with the altitude of this waypoint set to the runway threshold height plus 30 feet. This waypoint must be followed by an airport waypoint representing the destination airport. For the airport waypoint enter the airport elevation as altitude. Before the waypoint representing the runway threshold, enter all waypoints of the Non-PrecisionApproach up to the Final Approach Fix, including altitude information. At the FAF-waypoint, select Set FAF in the Flight management computer. All subsequent waypoints will be configured correctly for the Non-precision approach. If you are programming a complex RNAV approach that includes a well-defined path before the FAF, set all the waypoints from the start of the RNAV approach to the FAF as overfly waypoints. Make sure to assign the correct altitude information for each waypoint, so that the computer can fly the correct geometric path during the descent. During the RNAV approach the altitude of the next waypoint must never be above the altitude of the previous waypoint.
RWY Threshold Set automatically Altitude 50ft FAF Set as FAF Altitude 3000ft NPA Point Set automatically Altitude 1500ft Airport waypoint Altitude 23ft Set as Overfly Altitude 4200ft
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Use this button to set this waypoint as the Final Approach Fix (Requires correct constellation of the waypoints.) Use this button to toggle this waypoint between overfly and fly-by A triangle behind the waypoint name indicates that this is an overfly waypoint. Use this button to select the type of altitude constraint for this waypoint. (Only possible, if altitude for waypoint not zero.) Designates type of altitude constraint: No symbol: At constraint Plus-Symbol: At or above constraint (Used during descent) Minus-Symbol: At or below constraint (Used during climb)
Waypoints with an altitude value of zero are considered as waypoints without altitude constraint. For these waypoints, the CST TYPE button has no effect. For waypoints from the FAF to the Runway threshold, the text SET FAF next to the right line selection key 1 changes to FAF or NPA indicating the category of this waypoint. The function of the CLR button has also been modified from the standard X-Plane behaviour. Instead of just emptying the values of the current waypoint, it entirely removes the waypoint from the flight plan, and the flight plan continues immediately with the next waypoint.
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same thrust for all temperatures up to the flat-rated temperature. Above the flat-rated temperature, the turbine entry temperature becomes the limiting factor and the thrust drops significantly as the ambient temperature increases further. The flex temperature is now used to express how much thrust I want to have during my flex takeoff. For a flex temperature of x the engine will produce that amount of thrust, that it can produce maximally if C the outside air temperature was x This leads to the following consequences: C. The FLEX temperature must not be less than the Outside Air Temperature For FLEX temperatures that are below the flat-rated temperature of the engine, the engine will produce TOGA thrust even during a FLEX takeoff.
The flat-rated temperature of the engine depends on the airport altitude. For higher altitudes the flatrated temperature decreases. For the V2527-A5 engine, it is 51 at sea level and 30 at 5000ft. At 10000ft, C C it has already reduced to 20 C. To have properly reduced thrust during take-off, choose a flex temperature about 10-20 above the C flat-rated temperature. Unfortunately, I cannot provide data here on how to compute V1/VR/V2 and the associated FLEX temperature depending on runway length, wind and weight.
Use these LSK to copy the Scratchpad value to either V1, VR or V2. Use this LSK to set the decision height Use this LSK to set the Nav1 OBS Scratchpad Keyboard input ends up here!
Copy scratchpad value into Flex Temperature Thrust reduction and acceleration altitudes. (In ft above sea level!) Copy scratchpad value into Cruise Altitude
Thrust reduction and acceleration altitudes are important for the time immediately after take-off. The Thrust reduction altitude determines at which altitude the aircraft will request from the pilot to retard the thrust levers from the TOGA or the FLEX detent into the CL detent. (LVR CLB flashing in the first column of the Flight Mode Annunciator) The acceleration altitude determines at which altitude the autopilot switches from the SRS into the (OP) CLB mode leading to an increase in speed target to allow for flap/slat retraction. It is also important to enter a cruise altitude so that the aircraft enters the cruise mode upon leveling off at an altitude that is equal or greater than the cruise altitude entered in the MCDU. Only, if the AP switches to cruise mode, the speed profile during the descent will be correct ensuring that the speed is less than 250 knots upon passing through 10.000 feet.
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Unless another page is preselected, the APU page appears on the system display and shows that the Air inlet flap for the APU is open and you can see the APU speed increase. Once the APU revolutions reach 95%, the APU generator is operational and you can receive APU bleed air.
APU air inlet flap is open Press APU Master After that, press APU Switch Starter Switch APU revolutions increasing
Switch off the external power supply, the APU generator now takes over.
APU Bleed On
Switch on the beacon, the fasten seatbelt and no smoking signs as well as APU bleed air. Ensure that the NAV/LOGO lights are in the position 1 and the strobes in AUTO.
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If you have a pushback plugin installed, request the pushback. For pushback to begin you will have to release the park brake. This is only possible using the lever on the pedestal, as X-Plane has no joystick command for the park brake. Attention: On Airbus aircraft the pedal brakes have no effect, if the park brake is set. Only after releasing the park brake, the regular brake commands will be effective.
Park Brake On
Once the pushback is finished, set the park brake again and initiate engine start up. Turn the engine mode selector to position IGN/START. Check that both thrust levers are in the idle position. Flip on the master switch for engine 2.
On A320 family aircraft, engine 2 is generally started first. Engine 2 powers the yellow hydraulic system, which supplies the park brake. Hence, starting this engine first ensures that the brake has enough pressure.
First, turn ENG mode selector to IGN/START Second, switch on ENG Master Switch
When the startup procedure for Engine 2 is completed, switch on the Master Switch for Engine 1 and also monitor the startup sequence.
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When Engine 1 has reached idle, turn the Engine Mode Switch back into position normal.
After a short delay the Wheel page will appear on the System Display.
The System Display changes to the Wheel page after a short delay.
Turn the APU Bleed off on the Overhead panel and shut down the APU by depressing the APU Master Switch.
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For taxiing, only a slight increase in thrust is necessary, and at the default weight, the aircraft maintains a ground speed of about 15 knots with the engines at idle. During the taxi to the runway perform the take-off preparation: Arm the ground spoilers by selecting the airbrake lever one notch up. The GNDSPLRS ARMED memo appears in the Engine/Warning Display. The speedbrake lever shows a white band to indicate arming of the spoilers.
Set the Flaps to Take-off position. (Normally 1+F. If the aircraft is heavy and/or the runway short, also positions 2 or 3.) The take-off memo appears on the Engine Warning Display.
Take-off memo: Green lines are done Blue lines still require action
Perform a flight controls check. Moving the side stick will automatically call the F/CTL page on the ECAM. Move the stick fully left-right, then fully up-down, and also the rudder fully left-right. Make sure the respective indication on the System Display follows your commands.
Also check on the F/CTL page that the pitch trim is zero.
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Obtain the cabin report to make sure the cabin is ready for take-off.
Push the purser call button to get the cabin ready signal
We are almost ready for take-off now. The last, but very important item is to set the autopilot configuration correctly for take-off. First of all, you have to set the correct selected altitude on the FCU. If you fly with ATC, this is the first altitude, the ATC has cleared you for after departure. Otherwise it is the first cruise flight level. A frequent mistake is that people forget this step. The FCU altitude is then probably set to the last value before the previous landing, i.e. a very low altitude. This will lead to a very early level-off, probably with the engines still at Take-off thrust.
Before Take-off, set the first cleared altitude (flight with ATC) or the first cruise level (flight w/o ATC) in the FCU. Here: First cleared altitude of 8000ft.
Secondly, you need to choose the desired lateral mode after lift-off. When flying with a flight plan, the aircraft will by default enter NAV mode at 30ft AGL and follow the flight plan. If this is what you desire, you do not need to do any further action on the FCU. Just ensure that the FCU and the FMA look like this:
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FMA indicates that after take-off the modes CLB and NAV will engage The white dots indicate arming of a managed mode
If you do not want to follow the flight-plan immediately after Take-off, or you do not have a flight-plan, you should take-off in the mode Heading Preselect. To choose heading preselect mode, turn the heading selector knob to choose your preselected heading. This does not need to be the runway heading. In Heading Preselect mode, the aircraft will fly the runway track after take-off until the pilot pulls the heading selector knob. (In XPlane: Click on the heading selector knob.) After the pilot action, the aircraft will initiate a turn to the preselected heading.
If you accidentally engaged preselected mode, but want to take-off with NAV mode armed, you can revert to this state by pushing the Heading-Selector-Knob. (In X-Plane: Click in the area between the HDG-Selector-Knob and the heading indication on the FCU.)
FCU shows that no managed modes armed or active. Preselected Heading is 210 degrees.
FMA indicates that OP CLB mode engages after take-off. No lateral mode armed, i.e. the aircraft remains in RWY TRK mode until pilot action.
Moving the thrust levers into the FLX or TOGA detent activates the SRS mode for vertical guidance and the RWY mode for lateral guidance. If you have tuned the ILS or LOC of the departure runway in Nav1, the FMA will look like this (For the case of performing a Flex Take-off for a flight with flight-plan. Heading is not preselected):
Manually selected thrust: FLEX Thrust for a flex temperature of 65 C Active vertical guidance mode: SRS Armed mode: CLB (Engages at acceleration altitude)
A/THR is armed, but not active. Active lateral guidance mode: RWY Armed mode: NAV (Engages at 30ft RALT)
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Without the ILS/LOC of the departure runway tuned, the RWY mode still activates internally but does not do anything until 30ft RALT. In case of preselected heading, the RWY mode remains active after 30ft RALT and guides the aircraft along the runway track. (RWY TRK indicated in the FMA.) Otherwise the NAV mode engages normally at 30 ft RALT. As the RWY mode does not do anything during the take-off run if the correct navaid is not tuned, it is NOT displayed on the FMA. In this case, for a take-off with TOGA thrust and preselected heading, the FMA looks like this:
Manually selected TOGA thrust Vertical guidance mode: SRS Armed mode: OPEN CLB. (Engages at acceleration altitude)
A/THR armed but not active RWY mode internally active, but not shown, as it will only provide guidance after lift-off as mode RWYTRK. No armed modes.
At 80 kts perform the regular cross check that all parameters are normal (Speed indications, engine parameters) If you lose an engine before V1, abort the take-off by moving the thrust levers back into idle. The ground spoilers will come out, if you were faster than 72 knots and the auto-brake will provide maximum braking. Attention: The RTO Autobrake stops braking when the speed drops below 40knots. Use pedal brakes to stop the aircraft. If at V1 all parameters are still ok, you have to continue the take-off At Vr start pulling the side stick to rotate the aircraft to a nose-up attitude of about 10 degrees (ignore the FD bar for now!) and achieve lift-off when reaching V2. Once airborne, adapt the pitch to keep the horizontal FD bar in the middle or engage the autopilot to do the task for you. (If the captain is the pilot flying, engage AP1, if the co-pilot is the pilot flying, engage AP2)
Engage AP1, if you are simulating the captain to be the pilot flying. If the co-pilot is the pilot flying, engage AP2.
At 30ft, the vertical flight director bar becomes active to providing lateral guidance. Adapt the bank angle to keep this bar in the middle, if you fly manually. Otherwise the auto-pilot will do this job for you. Select Landing Gear up. Push speed brake lever to disarm ground spoilers Select nose gear light off.
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At this point, the pilot must retard the thrust levers into the CLIMB Detent. This will activate the A/THR. (Before it was only armed.) After correct retarding of the levers, the FMA looks like this:
A/THR text in the fifth column has changed from blue (armed) to white, indicating A/THR is now active.
This step is crucial for the safe and comfortable continuation of the flight. Make sure, that the A/THR mode indication in the first column of the FMA is green, and that the A/THR status indication in the fifth column is white indicating an active A/THR system. Normally, after thrust reduction altitude, the A/THR system operates in the mode THR CLB mode. This means that the A/THR provides maximum climb thrust and the speed is maintained via the aircraft pitch. If you have the Auto-pilot on, it will take care of this for you. If you fly manually, it is again the same rule: 2 Keep the horizontal bar of the flight director in the middle to maintain the desired speed correctly! After the thrust reduction, the aircraft still maintains the same speed target of V2+8knots, until it reaches the acceleration altitude. At the acceleration altitude, the vertical guidance mode changes from SRS to CLB and the speed target increases to allow for slat/flap retraction.
Speed target has increased to 210kts. (Vfe with flaps 1+F is 215kts.) After slat retraction, it will increase to 250kts. (speed limit below FL100.) Vertical guidance mode has changed from SRS to CLB. The new armed mode is ALT, which will engage, when the aircraft approaches 8000ft.
The Autopilot will reduce the aircraft pitch/the Flight Director will guide you to reduce the aircraft pitch and the airspeed will increase. If take-off with flaps in position 2 or 3: Retract flaps to 1+F, once IAS is above F-Speed. When IAS exceeds S-Speed: Retract Flaps/Slats fully.
The A/THR adjusts the thrust of the engines to maintain the aircraft speed, only if the active mode indicated in green in the FMA is SPEED or MACH. This mode is active for example during level flight when maintaining a fixed altitude or during the approach for landing. SPEED/MACH also becomes active, if the autopilot tracks a selected Vertical Speed. On the Airbus, this is a rare exception (except during approach.)
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Whether the Auto Thrust System is active or armed depends solely on the thrust lever position. A/THR is armed if: The green light on the A/THR button is lit, and the thrust levers are forward of the CL detent. (If you are flying with one engine out, if the live thrust lever is forward of the MCT detent.) Thrust is determined by the Thrust lever position. A/THR is active if: The green light on the A/THR button is lit, and the thrust levers are both in the CL detent or below. (Flying with one engine out, if the live thrust lever is in the MCT detent or below.) Thrust is determined by the A/THR system.
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The Auto Thrust System goes from armed to active, when both thrust levers are placed in the A/THR active range. (At or below the CL detent, or if one engine is out, at or below the MCT detent.) Analogously, the Auto Thrust System goes from active back to armed, when both thrust levers are placed above the CL detent, or if one thrust lever is placed above the MCT detent.
A/THR is armed, when the thrust levers are in this range. A/THR is active, when the thrust levers are in this range.
This logic dictates that ideally the thrust levers should be in the CL detent during a flight with A/THR active, as this gives the auto thrust system the maximum possible authority. For flights with one engine out, the live thrust lever should be in the MCT detent for the same reason. If the thrust levers are below the CL detent, the warning AUTO FLT: ATHR LIMITED appears in the ECAM informing the pilot that the A/THR is limited in its authority. Furthermore, the command LVR CLB flashes in the first column of the FMA, requesting from the pilot to move the levers into the CL detent. If one lever is correctly in the CL detent and the other lever is not, the warning LVR ASYM is displayed in the first column of the FMA in amber.
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becomes active as soon as the thrust levers are moved into the CL detent at thrust reduction altitude. In flight: If the A/THR is off in flight, you can engage it at any time, by pressing the A/THR button on the FCU. If the thrust levers are in the active range, the A/THR system will become active, otherwise it will become armed.
Auto thrust system disengagement can be done as standard disconnection or non-standard disconnection. There are two standard disconnection methods: Moving the thrust levers into idle disconnects the auto-thrust. This is normally used during the flare at landing. Pressing the Instinctive disconnect buttons on the thrust levers disconnects the auto-thrust. The pressing of these buttons is mapped to the standard X-Plane command: sim/autopilot/autothrottle_off
There is one implemented non-standard disconnection method: Pressing the A/THR button on the FCU also disconnects the Auto-Thrust, if the Auto-Thrust was armed or active before. As this is a non-standard disconnection method, it triggers an ECAM caution.
The system determines the difference between SPEED and MACH mode based on the type of speed target. (IAS in kts, versus a Mach number.)
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In these modes, the A/THR command a fixed engine thrust and the speed is maintained by the respective AP/FD mode. In one engine out operation, the THR CLB mode is replaced by the THR MCT mode.
The white dot indicates that managed speed is active. Click-Area for pulling the SpeedSelector-Knob. (Engages Selected speed.) Click-Area for pushing the SpeedSelector-Knob. (Engages Managed speed.)
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Active and armed modes of the AP/FD (Left column: Vertical guidance mode, Right column: Lateral guidance mode)
FD bars: Horizontal bar commands desired pitch Vertical bar commands desired bank
We recommend for people who want to fly manually to try following the flight director. After months of tuning, keeping the bars in the middle has become really smooth now. Concerning the guidance that the AP/FD provides, there are two fundamentally different possibilities available, selected guidance and managed guidance. Selected guidance is normally used for short term changes to the flight path, e.g. during ATC radar vectoring or weather related deviations from the flight plan. In selected guidance, the AP/FD follows flight path targets provided on the Flight Control Unit (FCU). For lateral guidance these targets are predefined headings, for vertical guidance it can be a new altitude target as well as vertical speed targets. Managed guidance provides automatic flight along the flight plan programmed in the FMS. The target for lateral guidance in this case is provided by the Flight Management and Guidance Computer (FMGC), the respective window on the FCU shows dashes only. For vertical guidance, the pilot still chooses the desired final altitude target on the FCU, but the FMGC ensures that altitude constraints and geometric descent paths defined in the flight path are met. For managed modes, you cannot select a vertical speed. The respective window in the FCU shows dashes. The control of the AP/FD system is done primarily via the Flight Control Unit. The selector knobs on the unit can be used to set the selected targets. Pushing or pulling the selector knobs as well as pressing the push buttons on the FCU is used to select the desired mode of the AP/FD system. The basic Airbus philosophy about pushing or pulling is the following: When you push a selector knob on the FCU, you push the aircraft away from you towards the FMGC. I.e. you hand the aircraft over to the FMGC and engage managed mode. When you pull a selector knob on the FCU, you pull the aircraft away from the FMGC towards you. You engage selected mode and gain control over the target of this mode.
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To implement the distinguishing between pushing and pulling the selector knob, we have implemented two click zones at each of the FCU selector knobs.
V/S selector knob PUSH (Engages VS mode with target 0fpm) (selected mode) V/S selector knob PULL (Engages VS mode on current VS) (selected mode) Arm LOC and GS mode
EXPED button. Engages EXP CLB or EXP DES mode (Selected modes!)
NAV mode: If you have a flight plan for your flight programmed into the FMC, you can use the NAV mode to guide the aircraft automatically along the flight plan. If you did not use HDG preselect for take-off, the NAV mode will engage automatically when the aircraft passes through 30ft. To activate the NAV mode in flight after flying in a different lateral guidance mode, you need to do three steps: o Make sure that the waypoint displayed on the FMC is the TO-waypoint of the flight plan leg you want to intercept. Make sure that the aircraft flies a track that actually intercepts this flight plan leg Push the HDG Selector button. (Click zone slightly above the HDG selector knob.)
o o
Upon pushing the heading selector button, the AP/FD verifies whether the current track of the aircraft intersects the flight plan leg that corresponds to the waypoint displayed in the FMC. If it detects an intersection, the waypoint displayed in the FMC becomes the active TO-waypoint, and the NAV mode is armed. (NAV appears in blue in the second line of the FMA and the white circle next to the heading window in the FCU lights up.)
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As soon as the aircraft is sufficiently close to the current leg, the NAV mode activates and the AP/FD will guide the aircraft to intercept the leg smoothly. The Heading window in the FCU now shows dashes. HDG mode: At any point during the flight (except in LAND mode), you can pull the heading selector knob (click on the knob) to engage the heading mode. The AP/FD will then follow the heading indicated in the heading window on the FCU. GA TRK: This mode is similar to the RWY TRK mode, with the difference that it engages during a Go Around. A go around is initiated by moving the thrust levers into the TOGA detent, when the slats/flaps are extended and the aircraft is in the air or has been on the ground less than 30s. The GA TRK mode guides the aircraft along the track it was flying at mode engagement. From GA TRK you can revert to HDG mode by pulling the Heading selector knob or to NAV mode by pushing the heading selector knob. You cannot revert directly to an approach mode from GA TRK.
Approach modes: The AP provides two different approach modes, depending on the type of the approach available. If a Non-precision Approach is defined in the Flight Plan (See Section 3), and the aircraft is already in the Non-Precision Approach part pressing the APPR button will arm the APP NAV mode: The APP NAV mode is very similar to the NAV mode and guides the aircraft along the path of the Non-precision approach of the flight plan. The APP NAV mode is armed by pressing the APPR button on the FCU while the aircraft is in the NPA segment of the flight plan. If the NAV mode is active when pressing the APPR button, the APP NAV mode will engage immediately.
If no FAF point is defined in the flight plan before the next airport, and a ILS or a LOC is tuned in the Nav 1 receiver, you can engage the LOC mode: If a LOC is tuned in Nav1, pressing the LOC button on the FCU will arm the LOC mode. If an ILS is tuned you can use either the LOC or the APPR button on the FCU to arm the LOC mode. The difference between the LOC and the APPR button is that the LOC buttons arms only the lateral LOC mode, whereas the APPR button also arms the vertical G/S mode. Hence, the APPR button works only, if the navaid tuned in Nav1 is an ILS. The LOC mode goes from armed to active, when the aircraft approaches the Localizer-beam. It then turns the aircraft onto the localizer and maintains the localizer.
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CLIMB and DESCENT modes: Altitude changes are normally done using either one of the CLIMB modes (CLB, OP CLB, EXP CLB) for achieving a higher altitude or one of the DESCENT modes (DES, OP DES, EXP DES). These modes have all in common that they are so-called pitch modes. (Except for the DES mode, when it follows a geometric path) In a pitch mode, the A/THR system commands a constant thrust level and the aircraft pitch is adjusted to maintain the aircraft speed. The fundamental difference between the CLIMB and the DESCENT modes is the amount of thrust commanded by the A/THR system. The AP/FD the modes perform more or less the same task in CLIMB and DESCENT modes: It adjusts the pitch to maintain the aircraft speed target. If you are flying with manual thrust this means: If you engage a CLIMB mode and command idle thrust on the engines, the aircraft will descend! Vice versa if you engage a Descent mode and leave the engines at a high thrust setting, the aircraft will climb! This shows the importance of the correct interaction between the A/THR and the AP/FD systems. OP CLB and OP DES: The open climb and descent modes are considered the selected modes for flight level change. They are engaged by pulling the ALT selector knob on the FCU with an FCU selected altitude that is above (OP CLB) or below (OP DES) the current aircraft altitude. The aircraft will initiate a climb or a descent to the new selected altitude without considering any altitude constraints given in a flight plan. In the case of OP CLB, the A/THR commands Maximum Climb thrust or if the thrust levers are below the CL detent the thrust limit given by the thrust levers. In the case of OP DES, the A/THR commands Idle thrust, independent of the thrust lever position. (Attention: If A/THR is active only, of course, see section 6.1) CLB and DES: The CLB and DES modes are the managed modes for flight level changes. They are engaged by pushing the ALT selector knob on the FCU with an FCU selected altitude that is above (OP CLB) or below (OP DES) the current aircraft altitude. In contrast to the OPEN Modes, these modes level off at Altitude constraints defined in the flight plan, until the waypoint with the constraint is sequenced. After sequencing the waypoint the mode CLB or DES is resumed until the next altitude constraint or the FCU selected altitude is reached. CLB and DES can only be activated, if the lateral guidance is in mode NAV or APP NAV. With other lateral guidance modes, OP CLB and OP DES will be engaged instead. EXP CLB and EXP DES: The expedited climb or expedited descent modes are activated by pushing the EXPED pushbutton on the FCU with a FCU selected altitude that is above (EXP CLB) or below (EXP DES) the current aircraft altitude. These modes are very similar to the OPEN climb and descent modes. Possible altitude constraints in the flight plan are ignored and the mode only disengages when the FCU selected altitude is reached, or another mode is actively engaged by the pilot. The different between the EXPED and the OPEN modes is the speed target that the aircraft assumes. In EXP CLB, the speed target is reduced to green dot speed in order to ensure the highest possible climb rate. In EXP DES, the speed target is increased to close to maximum permissible speed in order to ensure the highest possible rate of descent.
ALTITUDE modes: There is a variety of different Altitude capture and Altitude maintain modes depending on the circumstances: ALT and ALT* mode: The Altitude (ALT) and the Altitude Capture (ALT*) modes engage automatically, when the aircraft approaches the FCU selected altitude and one of the climb or descent modes is active or the VS mode is active. Upon approaching the altitude target, the ALT* mode engages and guides the aircraft to a level off when the selected altitude is reached. Upon reaching the Altitude, the ALT mode engages. ALT CRZ mode: This mode is practically identical with the ALT mode, only that the FCU selected Altitude has to be at or above the Cruise Altitude defined in the MCDU. Engagement of the ALT CRZ mode also engages the Cruise Phase for the Autopilot and marks the end of the Climb Phase.
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ALT CST and ALT CST* mode: The Altitude Constraint (ALT CST) or Altitude Constraint capture (ALT CST*) mode engages, when the aircraft approaches a relevant altitude constraint in the flight plan and is either in mode CLB or DES. Upon approaching the Altitude Constraint, the ALT CST* mode engages and the previously active mode (CLB or DES) becomes armed. The ALT CST* mode guides the aircraft to ensure smooth level off upon reaching the altitude constraint. When the constraint is reached, the ALT CST mode engages. Once the waypoint with the constraint is sequenced, the aircraft automatically resumes its climb or descent towards the FCU selected altitude.
Vertical Speed mode: The Vertical Speed mode is rarely used on the Airbus. One of the possible uses is if you get an ATC clearance that demands an explicit vertical speed. Another use is ILS glide-slope capture from above, in which case you use the VS mode to ensure that your rate of descent is high enough to catch the glide slope before reaching the airport. Non-precision approaches could also require the use of this mode, if the flight plan does not provide vertical guidance. For a normal, correctly planned flight without ATC clearances, you should not need this mode except during approach!! Approach modes: Analogously to the lateral guidance, the vertical modes during the approach depend on the approach type defined in the FMC. If the approach for the next airport in the FMC contains a FAF and the aircraft is in the Non-Precision Approach Part of the Flight Plan, pressing the APPR button will arm the FINAL mode: In final mode the aircraft is guided along the vertical flight path defined in the Flight Plan. For this guidance to work correctly, two items are of highest importance: - The NPA approach defined in the FMC ends with the runway threshold and the FMC altitude information at the Threshold waypoint corresponds to the threshold elevation +30 feet. - The altimeter setting corresponds to the QNH of the destination airport. The guidance in the mode is purely based on the barometric altimeter information. If your altimeter is set wrong or the runway threshold height is defined wrong, the AP will fly the aircraft into the ground! (And its not the plugins fault!) The final mode engages automatically after passing the Final Approach Fix (FAF). Once the final mode engaged, you should set the FCU selected altitude to the Go-around altitude.
If the flight plan contains no Non-precision part for the next airport and an ILS is tuned in Nav1, pressing the APPR button on the FCU will arm the Glideslope mode: The glideslope (G/S) and the glideslope capture (G/S*) mode guide the aircraft along the glide slope of the ILS. The G/S* mode ensures a smooth transition during glideslope capture and is automatically followed by the G/S mode, once the Glideslope is sufficiently well captured. If you are above the glide slope and not descending fast enough to capture the glide slope, the mode will disarm. The APPR button light will extinguish, and the LOC button lights up instead.
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with custom scenery, the ILS is often not aligned correctly with the runway, in these cases the aircraft will land, where the ILS beam guides it to. It does not know, where the runway is! For LAND mode, the only way to get out of this mode is by initiating a go-around! To initiate a goaround, push the thrust levers into the TOGA detent. If you are high enough, you can retard them back into the CL detent immediately as soon as the SRS and the GA TRK guidance modes are engaged on the FMA.
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9 Fly-by-wire briefing
This section gives a brief overview over the functionality that the fly-by-wire system provides. On the QPAC A320, the fly by wire will remain in Normal law throughout the entire flight, independent of system failures. The degenerated Alternate Law and Direct Law are not implemented in the freeware version.
Yaw axis: The Fly-by-wire system has a integrated yaw damper. You will not need to use the rudder at any stage in flight except for take-off, flare and rollout. The yaw damper cannot be switched on or off separately.
If you accelerate, you will notice an increase in vertical speed and a decrease of the aircraft pitch angle. This is a compromise of trying to maintain constant pitch and constant flight path angle at the same time. During acceleration, your angle of attack decreases, so the difference between pitch and flight path angle reduces. The fly-by-wire system decreases pitch and increases the flight path angle in a try to keep the load factor close to 1 (constant FPA) and the pitch rate close to 0 (constant pitch).
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Attitude protection: In order to avoid that the aircraft can get into abnormal attitudes, the flyby-wire system does not permit pitch attitudes above 30 degree nose up or below 15 degrees nose down. The roll angle is limited to bank angles below 67 degrees. For bank angles between 33 and 67 degrees, the system levels the wings automatically when the stick is neutral until the bank angle is less than 33 degrees. To maintain 67 degree bank you need to keep the stick laterally fully deflected. Load factor protection: As discussed above, the fly-by-wire system does not allow g-loads in excess of 1g/2.5g for clean wings and 0g/2g for flaps/slats extended. This protection is to ensure the structural integrity of the aircraft. High Speed Protection: When the aircraft speed exceeds VMO/MMO (350kts/M0.84), the flyby-wire system automatically introduces a pitch up moment in order to reduce the aircraft speed. This is coupled with the spiral dive protection. When the high speed protection is active, the maximum permissible bank angle is reduced to 45 degrees and with the side stick neutral, the system will fully level the wings. High Angle of Attack Protection: The high angle of attack protection activates, when the actual angle of attack of the aircraft exceeds the activation limit Alpha Prot. The side stick now commands a desired angle of attack. Neutral side stick corresponds to the angle Alpha Prot, fully aft stick corresponds to the maximum permissible angle of attack, providing the maximum possible amount of lift. The E/WD will display a warning: ALPHA PROT and the Autopilot disconnects. For deactivation make sure you are fast enough and push the stick slightly forward to reduce the angle of attack below Alpha Prot. Low speed protection: The low-speed protection is also triggered by a too high angle of attack. If the angle of attack exceeds the Alpha Floor limit (which is higher than the Alpha Prot limit), the A/THR system engages and commands TOGA thrust in order to provide a quick increase in speed or available climb performance. (Dont forget: This event is triggered either because you fly too slow or because you pull strongly on the stick.) The engagement of Alpha Floor is displayed in the first column of the FMA with the message A.FLOOR. When the angle of attack drops below the alpha floor limit, the A/THR mode changes from A.FLOOR to TOGA LK indicating that TOGA thrust is locked on the engines. Once TOGA LK appears in the FMA, you can deactivate this protection by disconnecting the A/THR system. (E.g. pull the thrust levers to idle or any other A/THR disconnect method.)
For more details on this system, please refer to the official documentation from Airbus.
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This principle applies to pretty much any STAR. Find the first waypoint with an At constraint (or an At or below constraint) and initiate your descent such that you will reach the height restriction at this waypoint in an idle descent path. (Unless instructed otherwise by ATC of course.) To find the T/D, a good rule of thumb is to initiate the descent 30NM per 10000ft of altitude difference to the target. To reach 10000ft at KORRY, this gives: 1. Cruise altitude FL300: (20000ft above the target alt at KORRY): Initiate the descent 60NM before KORRY. 2. Cruise altitude FL350: (25000ft above the target alt at KORRY): Initiate the descent 75NM before KORRY. With RIDGY being 87NM before KORRY, you would initiate your descent directly above RIDGY, if you cruise at FL390. For heavy aircraft or tailwind start the descent a bit earlier. With a light aircraft or head wind start a bit later.
~FL260
FL100
As you can see, the descent is steepest when the aircraft flies a constant Mach number. In this case, the ground speed remains constant or even slightly increases during the descent requiring more altitude loss to maintain the speed. (With the air getting warmer as you descend, the sonic speed rises.) Once the aircraft switches to IAS-mode, the slope flattens. This is because flying with a constant IAS means that the ground speed reduces continuously as you descend and the reduction in kinetic energy allows the aircraft to descent slower. (You trade kinetic energy (speed) for potential energy (height)) Short before reaching 10000ft, the speed target reduces to 250kts in order to comply with the speed limit below 10000ft. The aircraft will fly this speed reduction almost horizontally, so you will fly a few nautical miles without any height loss, until the speed dropped far enough to continue the descent. For your descent monitoring this means: 1. Do corrections only, when the aircraft maintains a constant IAS. It is hard to foresee, how the slope angle will change at the switch-over altitude. 2. If your target waypoint is at or below 10000ft aim to arrive a few nautical miles before the waypoint to allow for the speed reduction segment just before descending through 10000ft. To determine whether you are above or below the profile, you can check the time to your destination waypoint and cross-check with the current vertical speed. For example, if you are 5 minutes from your waypoint (according to FMC) and your descent rate is 1800fpm, you should be 1800fpm*5min = 9000feet above your target altitude. (Corrected by the deceleration phase at 10000ft of course.)
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If you have the impression, you are coming in too high, extend your speedbrakes. If you think, you are too low, change to manual speed and reduce the speed target by 10-20 knots.
If you pull the knob (by clicking on it), you will engage the OPEN DES mode and the aircraft will descend directly to the FCU selected altitude ignoring any altitude constraints given in the flight plan. If you push the knob (clicking slightly above it), you will engage the DES mode. In this mode, altitude constraints in the flight plan are considered, and if geometric legs are defined in the flight plan, they will be tracked. However, the Descent will end at the FCU selected altitude. When passing through the transition level, switch the altimeter setting back from Standard to QNH. (Get the QNH for your destination from ATC or use the weather menu dialogue.)
For switching from Standard to QNH click on the altimeter setting knob. The altimeter setting will change back to the QNH value that was selected before switching to Standard.
Clicking on the baro selector changes the setting from Standard to the last selected QNH value
CAUTION: Only change the altimeter setting while in mode (OP) DES. If you are in mode ALT (CST), the altimeter setting will change and most likely the ALT mode will revert to VS mode. In this case you need to reselect the necessary vertical guidance mode. Choose the desired AutoBrake setting. LO for long runways, MED for short or contaminated runways. You cannot engage MAX A/BRK in flight on this aircraft. Set Anti Ice as necessary. When passing through 10000ft (or according to destination airport regulations), switch on the landing lights.
When approaching 10000ft, the managed speed target will reduce to 250kts in order to respect the speed limit below 10000ft. If you fly with selected speed, make sure to reduce the speed target in time to reduce the speed to 250kts before descending below 10000ft. If you have the impression that you are coming in too high for the ILS approach or the vertical geometry of the RNAV-GPS approach, use the speedbrakes to increase descent rate while maintaining the selected IAS.
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Depending on the turbulence situation, switch on the Fasten Seat Belt signs (and no smoking signs).
The cockpit approach preparation depends on the type of approach for the destination airport.
Click on the LS-button on the Glare shield to switch on the Landing Scales. (Separate switches for Captain and FO PFD.)
When the ILS is tuned correctly and ready for use with the AP, the PFD will show the ILS information as magenta text in the bottom left corner.
ILS deviation scales displayed only if the LS button on the EFIS control panel is selected. Indicates that an ILS is tuned and ready for use with the AP/FD
You can arm the APPR mode for an ILS landing only, if the magenta ILS information is displayed in the PFD and if no FAF is defined in the FMS Flight Plan. Arm the approach mode by pressing the APPR button once the aircraft is in the area shown below. (Dont arm it earlier or you risk faulty interception of the localizer.) Engage the second Autopilot to enable DUAL CAT III landing.
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RWY
Until the Localizer and the glideslope are captured, you are responsible to ensure that the aircraft path intersects both. For Glideslope capture, we recommend capturing it from below. When capturing from above, use VS mode to ensure a high enough rate of descent to ensure intersection with the glide path sufficiently before the runway threshold! The APPR mode will revert to LOC mode, if you are above glide slope and the rate of descent is insufficient!
Representation of the deviation scales on the PFD. The representation is that of the new RNP approach developed by Airbus. Vertical deviation: 100ft/dot Lateral deviation : 0.1NM/dot
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Make sure, the baro setting is correctly set to QNH. The vertical deviation is computed purely based on altimeter information. A wrong QNH will let you reach the runway too high or too low. (CFIT!) As soon as the deviation scales are displayed on the PFD, you can arm the APPR mode by pressing the APPR button on the FCU. If in mode NAV, the lateral mode APP NAV will engage. For vertical guidance, the FINAL mode will be armed.
You can engage the second AP as soon as the APPR button is armed.
All other approaches: These are NDB, VOR, etc. These approaches are currently not supported by the FMS solution. You can fly them using the basic modes VS and HDG and using the regular navigational equipment to adjust the HDG and VS according to your desired flight path.
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The activation of the approach phase can be seen by the new managed speed target being in the range of 120 to 140kts, depending on your aircraft weight. The indicated speed target is now the final approach speed for landing configuration. As long as you are NOT in landing configuration, the A/THR system will maintain a higher speed target that is safe for the current configuration. With a clean wing, the aircraft will slow down to 220kts to allow for slats extension. Once you have extended the slats to configuration 1, the speed target reduces to S-Speed to allow flap extension to configuration 2 as well as slat retraction in case approach abortion. (Remember: The indicated speed target, i.e. the magenta triangle shows the final approach target speed during the entire approach.) After slat/flap extension to configuration 2, the speed target will be F-speed until you are in landing configuration. Once you are in landing configuration, the speed target corresponds to the magenta triangle shown on the side of the airspeed indicator. Approaches without possibility to switch to the approach phase: If your approach does not fulfill any of the two conditions shown above for switching to the approach phase, you will have to fly the approach with selected speed target.
Upon approach phase activation: Once the approach phase is activated, make sure that the aircraft slows down to a speed at which you can safely extend the slats to configuration 1. If the aircraft does not slow down fast enough, use the speed brakes or consider early gear extension. Remember to retract the speed brake latest when you are in configuration 2. At 2000ft above airport level: Extend flaps to position 2 (make sure that you are below 200kts IAS before doing so!) Arm the speed brakes Select Landing Gear down (once flaps are in position 2) Confirm Auto-Brake Setting Obtain cabin report by clicking on one of the cabin call buttons.
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Go-around preparation: Perform these steps only, once the G/S(*) or the FINAL APP mode have become active. If flying with VS mode for vertical guidance set the Go-around altitude when you are below the go-around altitude, so the VS mode does not capture this altitude. Set the go around altitude on the FCU. (DO NOT push or pull the selector knob.)
Final landing preparations: Switch on Nose Gear light, ensure Landing lights are on. Wing Anti Ice off. (Unless in severe icing conditions) Check that A/THR is in mode SPEED or Off. Set Flaps to 3. (When Speed below 180kts) Set Flaps to FULL (When speed at VAPP or slightly above.) Check landing memo all green.
The WHEEL page appears on landing gear extension. Make sure, all items are green. Shows the selected Auto Brake level.
11.1 Landing
ILS approach: When flying an ILS approach, the aircraft can perform a fully automatic landing including rollout and autobraking to a full stop. The only actions required in this case are: Monitor approach. Take over manually if necessary. At 20ft RALT: Retard thrust levers to idle.
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All other approaches: All other approach types do not allow for automatic landing. You will have to take the aircraft over manually at some point during the approach. At the Minimum Descent Altitude (at the latest), disengage the AP. Switch off both flight directors, as the approach will be flown visually from here. During flare, retard the thrust levers to idle, otherwise A/THR will maintain the current aircraft speed during flare.
Important: If the thrust levers are not in idle on touch-down, the speed brakes will not extend and Auto Brake will not engage.
11.2 Roll-out
Upon touch-down perform the following actions: Monitor speed brake engagement Select reverse thrust on both engines, choose level of reverse thrust depending on runway length. Monitor deceleration rate indicated by the green DECEL text on the autobrake button.
Indicates that at least 80% of the deceleration rate is reached that is associated with this A/BRK setting.
You can disengage the auto brake at any time by applying pedal brakes. (E.g. via X-Planes hold regular brakes command.) You should disengage the auto brake at 20kts ground speed to avoid jerky behaviour at low speeds. If you performed an Auto-Land, the AP will disconnect automatically, when you turn off the runway. You can of course disconnect it at your leisure during the roll-out.
11.3 Go-around
If at the decision height or the minimum descent altitude, you do not yet have the runway visual or your approach is not stable, you have to perform a go-around. Move both thrust levers into the TOGA detent (i.e. fully forward) to engage the Go-around mode. (This works at any point in the approach as soon as the slats or the flaps are extended.)
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If your flight plan includes the go-around flight path re-engage the Navigation mode as soon as possible: Push the Heading Selector knob (by clicking slightly above it.)
The rest is very similar to the initial climb. See section 6. If you perform your go-around at a high altitude that does not require TOGA thrust, you initiate the Goaround by moving both thrust levers into the TOGA detent and immediately back into the climb detent.
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12 Systems briefing
This aircraft comes with a highly complex simulation of the systems of the A320. A detailed description of each of the system can be found on www.smartcockpit.com. Here, I will just describe the basics of system usage. Basic rule for the A320 systems use: You do not need to do anything! All systems are fully automated and unless you have system failures, you do not need to touch almost any of the switches in the OHP panel. The image below shows all the switches that need to be operated in normal operations. While most OHP switches are operational, you dont need to press any of those, unless you encounter system failures.
In this graphic, the landing elevation switch for the cabin pressurization system is included in the switches for normal operations. This is because on the QPAC A320, the Cabin pressurization system does not receive landing elevation information from the Flight Management System. On the real Airbus, this switch is left in position Auto during normal ops. The color coding of the lighting in the OHP switches is as follows: Green: Normal system status (E.g. APU Avail indication) Amber: Abnormal system status (E.g. all the Fault lights.) Blue: Temporarily acceptable switch position in normal operations White: Abnormal switch position
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What this means, is that the OHP is only in a normal state, if it is completely dark. During standard operations, the only acceptable lights in the OHP are either green or blue. None of these should be illuminated during the entire flight.
Pilot actions required in normal operations: Phase Take-off: For take-offs on short runways, consider switching off both packs to improve engine performance. Switch the packs back on at the thrust reduction altitude. Phase Descent and Landing: Over reasonably flat or hilly terrain, the Cabin Pressure control works very well with the landing elevation switch set to Auto. In highly mountainous areas, set the landing elevation switch to a value close to your destination airport elevation. (In real life, the CPC receives the landing elevation from the Flight Management and Guidance System.) Any flight phase: You can set the desired temperature for the different zones (Cockpit, Forward and Aft Cabin) to your liking. In real life, youll probably get complaints about too hot or too cold, no matter which temperature you choose.
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All system reconfigurations are fully automatic and do not require any pilot action. Especially, do not select any of the generator switches to OFF, unless the ECAM asks you to do so! The OHP switches to control the electrical system are:
Battery switches. On during the entire flight. Some airlines ask to switch them off, when the aircraft is parked. Switch off commercial electrical loads (IFE, Galleys, Cabin lights, etc) (required in electrical emergency or fire.) Transfer the supply of the AC Essential bus from AC1 to AC2. (Required on AC1 Bus Fault)
Engine and APU generator switches. Do not switch them off, unless asked to do so by the ECAM!
External power switch. Use it to activate external power supply when reaching parking position before engine shutdown.
Pilot actions required in normal operations: Phase preflight, before Push-back: Switch off external power supply. (Make sure you started the APU before!) Phase done, after reaching the stand, before engine shut-down: Switch on external power supply.
In normal ops, there are no other actions required for the electrical system.
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1. Fuel is used from the center tank 2. When center tank is empty, fuel is used from the main wing tanks 3. When the main wing tanks approach low level, fuel is transferred from the outer to the main tanks. The sequence above is slightly simplified. When feeding from the center tank, the return fuel from the engines is deposited in the wing tanks. Hence, the wing tanks need to have the space to accommodate the return fuel. Hence, center tank feeding occurs only, if the wing tanks are not completely full. The logic, when the center tank pumps run, is fully automated, if you leave the center tank pumps in automatic mode. No pilot action is required to achieve the correct feeding sequence! The following switches on the OHP are used to control the fuel system:
Opens and closes the cross-feed valve
Left main tank fuel pump switches (Leave always on in normal ops) Center tank fuel pump switches (Normally on, even if fuel pumps dont run)
Right main tank fuel pump switches (Leave always on in normal ops) Switch center tank pumps into manual mode (not needed in normal ops)
Pilot actions required in normal ops: NONE. (Except for fuel quantity monitoring of course.) Abnormal procedures: Gravity feed: The Engines can consume fuel from the wing tanks on gravity feed, i.e. with the Left (Right) Fuel Boost pumps off. The engines cannot consume fuel from the center tank without the center tank pumps running. Left-right fuel transfer: If you encounter an engine failure or a significant fuel imbalance between the left and the right side, you can transfer the fuel between the two main wing tanks as follows: 1. Open the cross feed valve. The OPEN light needs to light up within 2 seconds. 2. Switch off the boost pumps on the side, where the fuel shall go. I.e. if you want to transfer fuel to the right wing tank, switch the right Boost pumps 1 and 2 off. 3. Monitor the fuel transfer on the Lower ECAM FUEL Page. 4. When fuel transfer finished, switch the boost pumps back on and close the cross feed valve.
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Switch for electrical yellow system pump. Engine 1 EDP switch (Leave on in normal ops.) Manual RAT deployment (Do not use in normal ops.)
Engine 2 EDP switch (Leave on in normal ops.) Power Transfer Unit switch (Leave on in normal ops.)
Wing Anti-Ice
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SD Page Selection: If you want to consult another page on the system display other than the automatically displayed page, you can select the desired page on the ECAM control panel:
With the exception of the DOOR page, all System Display pages are available for display. To select a page, press the respective button on the ECAM control panel. The green bar on the button will light up, and the page will be displayed. To return to the automatic System Page sequencing, click the same button a second time. The green bar extinguishes, and the System Displays shows the page suitable for the current flight phase. Display unit brightness control: The brightness of each of the six display units can be controlled separately. The brightness control knobs for the Engine Warning Display (E/WD) and the system display (SD) are shown in the graphic above. The brightness controls for the Primary Flight Displays (PFD) and the Navigation Displays (ND) are shown here:
Brightness control of the first officers - Navigation Display - Primary Flight Display
Clearing of ECAM warnings: Warnings displayed on the ECAM displayed can be cleared using the CLR-pushbutton on the ECAM control panel. Each push of the button will clear the first warning displayed on the E/WD independent, whether the associated ECAM actions have been performed or not. The green bars on the CLR button are lit, if the button can be pressed to remove warnings.
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If gravity landing gear extension is required: Should it be necessary after a loss of the green hydraulic system to extend the gear by gravity perform the following actions: Actuate the gravity extension lever. (In real life, three turns of the handle, in XP just a click on it.)
Left and right brake pressure (In real life, only if the yellow system performs the braking. In X-Plane for easier use also when braking with the green system.)
Parking Brake: The parking brake overrides all other brake commands when set. To make use of XPlanes brake commands, which constitute pedal brake applications, you need to switch off the parking brake.
Park Brake On
Auto Brakes: On the A320, you have three different levels of automatic braking available. LO and MED braking are used on landing depending on the available runway lengths. MAX is the Auto Brake mode for rejected take-offs. On some A320 versions, MAX cannot be selected in flight, so on the QPAC A320.
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Indications: - Blue ON: Mode armed or active - Green DECEL: 80% of the deceleration rate for this ABRK level reached.
Beacons: Need to be on at any point, when the aircraft moves. Strobes: With the switch in position AUTO, the strobes will be on, as soon as the aircraft is airborne. They will switch off again on touch-down. Navigation lights: These lights are on during the entire flight, and often also on the ground at night. The switch position chooses which system is used for these lights. (System 1 or 2)
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Landing Lights: The landing light switches have 3 positions. In position RETR, the landing light mounts are retracted into the wing. In position OFF, the landing light mounts are extended, but the lights are off. In position ON, the light mounts are extended and the lights are on. Nose Wheel Light: In real life, the nose wheel light comes in two intensities, Taxi and Take-off. X-Plane does not support this, so the switch only allows for the positions on and off. The light is switch off automatically, if the nose gear is not fully extended.
With the transponder power switch in the Auto position, the transponder remains in standby while the aircraft is on the ground, and automatically goes to on once the aircraft is in the air. In normal operations, you do not need to move this switch. If you need the transponder to also work while on the ground, switch the switch to ON.
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There are two transponders on the aircraft, but only one operates at a time. You can choose between the two with the Sys switch. Transponder 1 is powered by the AC ESS (SHED) bus. It will not work, if the AC ESS bus is not powered, of if the message AC ESS SHED is displayed on the ECAM. Transponder 2 is powered by the AC 2 bus and will hence only work, if this bus is powered. If power to the transponder is lost, the display of the transponder code goes blank. Pilot actions during normal operations: Only two actions are required during normal operations: - Set the XPDR code according to ATC instructions. - Press the Ident button, if requested by ATC.
Switches ENG2 Bleed on or off. Cross-bleed switch (Leave in position on.) (Leave in position AUTO) APU Bleed switch
Pilot actions during normal operations: In normal operations, the pilot only needs to control the APU bleed. For engine start, switch on the APU Bleed. Selection of APU Bleed overrides engine bleed air supply, so switch APU Bleed off immediately after engine start to avoiding ingestion of Engine exhaust gasses. With the Cross-Bleed switch in the position AUTO, the cross bleed valve opens automatically, if APU bleed is selected. Otherwise the cross bleed valve is closed. In normal operations, there is no reason for this switch to be in any other position than AUTO.
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AC1 Bus Fault AC2 Bus Fault HYD G PUMP Fault HYD Y PUMP Fault DC1 Bus Fault DC2 Bus Fault TR1 Fault TR2 Fault HYD B PUMP Fault HYD Y ELEC PUMP Fault HYD G Leak HYD Y Leak
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Work as usual
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15 Appendix Abbreviations
The following abbreviations are used frequently in this Quick Start Guide: A/THR ALT AP AP/FD APPR APU ATC ECAM EDP ENG E/WD FAF FCU FMC / FMS FMGS FPA HDG ILS MCDU ND NPA OHP PFD PTU QPAC RALT RAT SD SID SPD STAR TOGA VS (V/S) Automatic Thrust Altitude Auto Pilot Auto Pilot and Flight Director Approach Auxiliary Power Unit Air Traffic Control Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitoring Engine Driven Pump (Hydraulic Pump) Engine Engine Warning Display Final Approach Fix. Flight Control Unit Flight Management Computer / Flight Management System (XP standard) Flight Management and Guidance System Flight Path Angle Heading Instrument Landing System Multipurpose Control and Display Unit Navigation Display Non precision Approach Overhead Panel Primary Flight Display Power Transfer Unit (Hydraulics) Quality Park Aviation Center Radio Altitude Ram Air Turbine (Hydraulics) System Display Standard Instrument Departure Speed Standard Arrival Routing Take-Off / Go Around Vertical Speed
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