I Tried a flight last night with the new Beta. Overall impression was positive. It appeared the plane was predicting turns better than before and did a much better job of staying on course than the previous 2.4 beta. That part surprised me because that wasn't listed in the release notes.
I did run into a couple of issues which I have been unable to figure out why it happened:
- A320 Ver 2.5 Beta 1
- Windows 10 (64-bit)
- X-Plane 10.40 rc 3 (I know - Beta version)
- Latest 1510 Airac from Navigraph
Route: KMCI ROYAL7 TONCE DCT DSM J144 DBQ V341 OSH V9 GRB KGRB
Altitude: FL350
Issue 1 - Transition Selection
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My first issue started on the ground. When selecting the SID ROYAL7. After programming the route, and filling in all of the performance data, I returned to the F-PLN page and selected KMCI at the top. I then clicked on Departure. I select Runway 19L, then ROYAL7, No VIA, then select TONCE transition.
I received an immediate notice on the MCDU "KGRB deleted from FLT PLN". When I look through the flight plan, it's obvious that selecting the transition, removed a good portion of it. I then returned to the INIT screen, re-entered the entire flight plan, re-selected the SID, but selected NO TRANSITION. This resulted in no messages, but I needed to enter a few waypoints for the transition manually.
Issue 2 - Flying VOR Radial
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The ROYAL7 departure is a vector departure. The TONCE transition is depicted on the chart as flying the 360-degree outbound radial of the MCI VOR. I set the Radios on the MCDU as Manual and I tuned the MCI VOR (113.25) into NAV 1. I set the course for 360-degrees. After departure, I vectored myself around a little bit and once North of the field, I had the autopilot fly a heading of 330-degrees to intercept the 360 radial out of MCI. I pressed the LOC button and had the display in ROSE VOR mode.
As I got closer to intercept, the course started to center on the display. The plane should have turned to the right to fly the 360-degree course out of MCI, but instead it turned to the left. It appeared to be trying to fly the course 180-degrees in the wrong direction (or fly direct to the MCI VOR). I verified my instruments multiple times and couldn't figure out why it was doing what it was. I had to turn off the autopilot and fly manually to re-intercept the course. Once on course, I used the MCDU DIRECT feature to get to my first waypoint.
Issue 3 - Hold In Lieu of Proceudre Turn
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When arriving in KGRB, I was attempting to perform the RNAV(GPS) 18 approach from the SHOOD fix. In order to do this approach, you need to perform a Hold at ANEPE. I programmed the hold using the Calculated method. I kept the default 1/4, right turns and inbound course of 182-degrees and it displayed with a strange path. If I press CLR and then click on one of the DECEL waypoints in the MCDU, the flight path seems to clear up.
I entered the hold perfectly and the plane flew the first turn exactly as required. It then flew the 002-degree outbound course as expected. It then turned to the right exactly as expected. At the end of the Outbound end as it should have continued flying the 182-degree heading to ANEPE but instead, at the end of the right turn, it suddenly started turning to the left. It appeared to all of a sudden decide to do a left hand hold. I haven't been able to determine why.
I am going to try and re-create the flight again, and will take a few screenshots of where things went wrong. I was caught off guard during the flight and didn't think to take screen shots along the way. I will also report back with a log.txt and bbox_log.txt of the 2nd flight.
I'm not an airline pilot so I could absolutely be doing something completely wrong in my approach. I've got over 30 hours in the JAR A320 2.4 b4 version although this departure and arrival is a little different than anything else I've flown with the aircraft.
bbox_log.txt
