Litjan

The real FMS were a bit laggy - but we got some CPU upgrades in late 90´s and that made it a bit faster. The problem is that in the real plane - the FMS runs on one system, the outside visuals and the airplane runs on another system (reality!!) - so even if the FMS is laggy, the visuals and aircraft will stay crispy . Or as someone once put it: Life is a stupid game, but the visuals rock! In X-Plane, everything runs on one computer, so if your FMS becomes laggy due to a too large database, chances are that the rest of the simulator comes down with it... Jan

Hi Richard, sorry to hear about your troubles! We had some reports where X-Plane key mapping went south - for example people reported that the B key will not only apply brakes, but also toggle the Beacon on and off... I think it is an X-Plane quirk, remapping usually helped. If you get a gizmo-soft-crash (window pops up), the code has failed. At that point we would love to get the gizmo_log.txt file and the IXEG_FMS_debug.txt files (available after next update to 1.0.6) from you, so we can find the reason and cure the crash. After that event, the code will not work right, anymore, and your best bet is to continue with conventional navigation (like you did). 1.0.6 is pretty imminent, and I would suggest waiting for that one before you go through the trouble of reporting any further code-crashes, that one should fix up quite a few of those again. We don´t have plans to add the older "paddle" type AP panel at this point - the current combo (new panel, steam gauges) is in use in real life, and the old panel with it´s constant clicking of the lockouts would drive people nuts . Cheers, Jan

It has been a while, but I think we limit the navigational database not with absolute mileage but with a certain "maximum allowable difference in latitude and longitude". Therefore the database will be bigger around the equator, smaller towards the poles. The reason we did this is performance. The database has to be accessed all the time, and having too many entries will slow down searches a lot. This does not only affect FMS entries, but we also need to check if a certain fix is on the map to display it... this quickly becomes a burden. The maximum fuel load is about 16.000 kgs. Under favourable conditions (light aicraft, good winds) this will let the plane fly about 3.300 NM (no reserves). A more realistic range, which the plane will be able to do with reliability is ca. 2200 NM (normal load, average winds, reserves). Most airlines have databases in the FMS that covers their area of operation - there can be quite a difference in memory available. I will add the request for a larger database, but we have to check how performance holds up for that... Jan

Ok! Jan

Yes, this is exactly like it works in the real plane. I am sorry, I didn´t build that plane . I guess it could be argued that it is more safe to continue the approach to the runway (with a single-channel autoland) than to maybe level off at a lower altitude that someone set by accident and fly over the runway and into a mountain on the other side... Anyway, I am sure the designers thought long and hard before making it that way - if you intend to fly a LOC approach or break off the ILS for a circling, don´t use APP, but instead use VOR/LOC and V/S. Jan

Hi - the little light will stay on after the next update... You should be able to engage autopilot modes, though - so I am not sure what is going on, there. I am sure you flew and mastered all the included tutorials on that subject? Let me know once that is completed, if you have any additional questions that are not covered in the tutorials. Cheers, Jan

Tchou is right - the only way to get out of APPROACH (VOR/LOC + GS) mode after GS is captured is to turn off both AP and FD... Jan

Aircraft updates (at least for now) should not affect this at all. At any rate, you COULD roll back to a previous "hotfix" if desired. Jan

Alright, let´s see... 1.) The autopilot will normally target V2+15 (actually up to V2+25, iirc). V2 is the speed that will be flown exactly if you have an engine failure, thats why it is being set with the orange cursor. V2 is Vstall x 1.2 - but it won´t allow more than 15 deg bank, thats why V2+15 is flown under normal conditions (bank up to 30 ok). 2.) You should be able to resume LNAV and VNAV navigation upon rejoining (or going direct to a point) of your old arrival. VNAV is still under improvement works - so keep an eye on how that performs and be ready to revert to V/S or FL CHG if it is unsatisfactory. 3.) The MCP hard barrier does not apply for the G/S pitch mode. 4.) The green circles are calculated taking diminishing performance with altitude into account (the plane is not climbing linearly). The "banana" is always "present ground speed vs present climbrate" - so it will be too optimistic during climbs, and too pessimistic during descents (since the groundspeed diminishes when lower). 5.) This should show distance to current active waypoint - but it is currently still missing and will be added in 1.1 6.) That is still being tuned - but the first descent after the T/D will be an idle-power gliding descent. The autothrottle retards the engines to idle, then goes to armed. The autopilot will keep the plane on the pre-planned path - ideally the slope is such, that the plane can "glide" at the precomputed speed without any engine thrust. If things don´t work out (too much headwind, etc.), the engine will spring back to life (FMC SPD) to boost speed back to the desired level. Then it will go dormant again... 7.) The E/D point is the last and lowest point in the route (usually the runway altitude + 50 feet) - the MCP ALT has nothing to do with the FMS´ path calculation - but will be heeded by the autopilot for level-off, if the pilot is not quick enough to "dial it out of the way". The three labels should actually be FPA (current flight path angle), VBA (vertical bearing to next altitude restriction) and V/S (required vertical speed to make the next restriction). This will be fixed and tuned in future updates. 1719.8 is the predicted time in Zulu time for CBY. Q1: The terrain display overpowers the wxr display - if both are on, terrain will be shown. Q2: There is a maximum wiper speed, but I don´t remember it right now. It is pretty high, though, so it is not a real limitation (since you will only use the wipers during approach, takeoff and taxiing. Q3: Engine out FMS mode is not modeled yet. Q4: Limitations say minimum 1000 feet agl, but you can already engage that at 400 as well. Hope this helps, Jan

Yes, I think its "engine one mixture up a bit" and so on... Jan

Hi Noslen, I read that far - and will answer you in detail when I have a second (or actually half an hour...) . Cheers, Jan

Glad everyone is making some progress with this - rest assured we will continue to investigate and work on this so special "workarounds" will not be necessary in the future... Cheers, Jan

Hi, we are aware of the problems with the restrictions and are working on that... it should be possible to add "in between" restrictions, eventually. There is no way to customize the turnaround state. It is fashioned after a realistic turnaround state and not moddable. Jan

Hi letec, I am very happy to hear that! I will try to replicate your findings on my computer - we will nonetheless work on this issue - after all it is only our plane that seems to be affected, so it must be something within our plugin code that is causing it. I am very happy that you were able to find an interim solution for yourself, though, and hope that you can get to enjoy our plane now! Happy flying, Jan

Yes, its normal . Happy flying, Jan

Hi Thomas, this is needed for the 2nd AP to stay on: Both ILS set on respective VHF receivers Altitude > 800´ RA Both hyd systems powered Both gen buses powered And probably a few more I didn´t think about - but most likely it is the second ILS not being set on VHF Nav 2... Jan

Thanks for reporting back - this will help us with future reports like this, as we have seen this issue now and then... Cheers, Jan

Hi Jolmos, you can find this information in the "interface guide", page 12. Jan

Hi Brian, thanks for the feedback - I also enjoy just flying it around VFR, got to do that much too little in my time of really flying the 737 . The flashing 8 is a sign that the autothrust reversion mode has kicked in - trying to help you from breaking the airplane or it´s passengers - It will spring to life if you get too fast for your current configuration, or too slow. To get out of it, simply increase the selected speed (it will automatically pop to a speed that is still "just" safe) by 15kts in the "right direction" - the flashing should stop, and then you can resume normal flight. Cheers, Jan

Hi and thanks for the report, in addition to Tchou´s advice for avoiding this problem, I suspect a jittery hardware throttle triggering the Rejected Takeoff Mode (we are basically just watching if the hardware throttle is "moving" and "being at idle"). To get out of the T/O mode, make sure that you turn off the A/T (switch) and also turn off both FD´s. To regain manual control of the thrust-levers during approach, make sure that the "ghost-throttles" match up with the hardware throttles long enough - i.e. don´t yank back and forth, but move over slow and deliberately. There is a tiny time-delay to avoid jittery throttles to display the ghost throttles all the time. Let me know if this helps? Jan

It will be another hotfix, but most likely the last one before the first real "traditional" patch which includes more than just code fixes. The hotfix is ready except for one item (VNAV descent speed limit overhaul) - and we figured it would be well worth holding off another day or two if we can get this in. If it turns out to take too long, we will release the hotfix without that. Jan

Hi and thanks for the report! The channels A and B are exclusively LEFT and RIGHT. There is no crossreferencing - even when you have both on (dual channel approach) every autopilot is tracking his onside ILS signal. We have a quirk which will be fixed with the next update: The FlightDirector MAster lights (MA) should stay on, even if the AP is in "command" (= working). So that might have added a bit of confusion. The FD that gets turned on first will be MA(ster) - unless an autopilot gets engaged, this will supersede the FD Master allocation. The channel A (left side) can only track stuff tuned on VHF NAV 1 and vice versa. Both can reference the FMS (LNAV). You can also see this at work when flying an ILS - the onside FD will give commands, while the offside FD will disappear (unless the ILS is also tuned on that side). However, the FMA (flight-mode-annunciation) will always be the same on both sides. I am not sure what happened on your FL CHG, it does sound quirky. If you can reproduce it and (ideally) make a short video of how it happens, you would help uns very much! Thanks for the feedback, Jan

Thanks for the feedback, gentlemen! Jan

Thanks for the feedback - we continue to optimize our sound code to have as small a footprint as possible, but if other code is taking up sound resources and there are not enough available it is tough. But your report gives us another idea to test... Thanks, Jan

No, its not Tequila (unfortunately) Jan