Holger

Both, the A300 and A310 are great addons as they are far away from the 737/A320 mainstream. And they offer a great challenge if you want to operate them as close to reality as possible. The A300 still has some issues, but I like it nevertheless. Last week I flew from Cologne to Kuwait City. And instead of flying back to Central Europe, I continued via New Delhi, Kathmandu, Tokyo, Seattle, Atlanta, Nassau, New York, East Midlands further eastwards. Pretending to be a freight dog offers you plenty of new destinations in FS. 🙂

Hi all, thank you very much for your valued input. 👍 Yes, that's what I did, too. In the A310, I get a blue P.DES message on the PFD notifying me that RNAV is armed. That's what I mean. Ah, I see... However, this is a weird Airbus logic back these days. It's hard to understand why the PROF button does not turn green, since ALT HLD, LVL CHG and PROF are always somehow illuminated during the flight - depending on which mode is active. But in this crucial situation the pilot does not know about it. Especially in my case, when I do not get a blue P.DES message. Thank you for the confirmation. I believe Mark is right and there is a mistake in the order I press the FPA and PROF button in this situation. Oh, that might become a problem with ATC seperation on long finals. In Salzburg it is 8 NM, but there are also airports with longer distances (from the FAF to touch down). Following what I have learned for ILS approaches, I have to be fully configured at about 6 NM and stabilized at least at 4 NM. Hmmm... You should be able to fly the RNAV approach even with manual thrust. See the first video in this thread (although this relies on the A310, but I believe it is the same on the A300). I just read that a new version of the A300 is out. I did not read the changelog yet, but I will try to do some training in the evening when the kids are in bed. I need to become more confident with RNAV approaches. Since they are a mix of automated and manual flying (the last few miles), they are my prefered approach type for bigger aircraft. Again, thank you! Best, Holger

Hello everyone, please join me on a very short test flight from Linz to Salzburg. Today's route is LOWL Rwy 08 LIDSI1E LIDSI DCT MATIG MATIG2R LOWS Rwy 15 Here we are sitting at the apron of Linz and I am just going through the checklists and feed the FMC. A few moments later I am taking off - although I am carrying no cargo for this flight, quite late due to the T/O-thrust bug. But never mind... It is indeed a very short flight - our Cruising Altitude is just FL120. We have left Linz to the east and after a 180° turn over the city we are already heading westwards. Great weather today! Almost spring here... Here comes the interesting part: MDA is entered with 1.611 ft. WS832 and SBG are the last waypoint on the STAR. They have to be crossed at 5.000 ft or above. Platform Altitude is 4.000 ft. But since WS832 is the IAF, I have chosen to cross it at exactly 5.000 ft. And as you can see, I am BEFORE the IAF and I am NOT in Profile Mode. A few moments later, I have entered the Platform Altitude and the plane has turned into final approach. At Platform Altitude, I hit PROFILE mode several times, but the button never turned green. There was also no blue P.DES ARMED info on the PFD. However, to my big surprise, the light on ALT HLD turned off, P.DES was shown on the PFD and the plane started to descend by magic. I did not expect that! During my last flights, I have always turned off the AP did the approach manually, since I had no info from the plane that it will carry out the RNAV approach. During the final phase of the flight, things got crazy: The computed approach speed was very low (only 118 KIAS), so that I wanted to manually enter 130 KIAS. As mentioned in the videos earlier in the thread, it should be possible to fly the RNAV approach with a dedicated airspeed. But when I touched the knob, the AT turned off and the engines spooled up like crazy. I had to turn off the AP and fly manually in order to get stabilized again. Short final... ...and a more or less perfect landing on this scenic airport. So... - the remaining question is: WHY doesn't the plane tell me that it is carrying out the RNAV approach? Why is the PROFILE button not illuminated? Why don't I get an "armed" message on the PFD as soon as I hit the 3° FPA button? Best regards, Holger

Hi Mark, yes, everything you write is my procedure. Descending to Platfrom Altitude in LVL CHG, ALT HLD @ Platform Altitude, hitting FPA 3.0 so that a deviation in feet is being displayed. The appropriate graph is shown on the ND... I am waiting for it to come close to my ALT and then I try to hit PROF but the plane does nothing. At least I have to fly the RNAV approach manually. And all that works in the A310. Regards from Munich, Holger

Hi, does anybody manage to fly an RNAV Approach with the latest build? Having everything correctly configured (I believe), I am unable to set the beast into Profile Mode at Platform Altitude. To be precise: I am descending to Platform Altitude via Profile Mode or LVL CHG, level off, hit "FPA 3.0" (or whatever the button is called in the FMC) so that "V/DEV" in the Nav Display. I am several feet below the desired glidepath in ALT HLD mode and as it is slowly approaching to my altitude, I hit PROF - but nothing happens. The button does not illuminate and the AT does not decelerate. Doing the same in the A310 works perfectly everytime. Best, Holger

Hi Mark, wow, thank you very much for your explainations and the wonderful video. Unfortunately, I am away from my PC until next week, so I cannot reproduce the approach by myself. But I am looking forward to do this. 🙂 Best regards, Holger

Thank you for your replies, everyone. I still did not manage to fly an RNAV approach yet, although I tried several approaches today. 😞 ...schon klar. 😉 Just for my understanding (because it does not make sense to me): I am descending in PROF mode to the platform altitude (e.g. 3.000 ft). MDA and DH is set properly, AT is active. Then I need to leave PROF mode and change to ALT HLD (or whatever) and enter PROF mode again? Hmmm... Where is the descent angle shown? I did not see it yet. Another thing that bugs me is that neither the A300 or the A310 are following constraints properly. E.g. I have set ALT to 4.000 ft, but a waypoint close to me has 3.000 ft mandatory. I expect the plane to stop at 3.000 ft until passing this waypoint before climbing to 4.000 ft. Or are those old planes not capable to follow this logic? Best, Holger

Hi, thank you very much! Haha, that's indeed a very good question. Ah, okay. But that does not seem to be the solution. According to this video (it is for the A310, but I believe that it is the same in the A300)... ...it would be the Missed Approach Altitude or the Altitude of FAF (which I have used, too). NAV was armed, just as I did, but the plane did not sink.

Thanks, but this does not answer my questions... I know that RW21 has no ILS, that's why I used RNAV. The FMC was programmed properly according to the manual / tutorial videos.

Hi, the A300 has become my favourite plane at the moment. Today, I was flying into Nantes Atlantique LFRS, RW21. This RWY has an RNAV approach. During the final phase of this flight, I was turning into Final Approach and I was flying according to the requirements given by Approach Chart. AP was active, I have activated "Land" and "Approach", so that "CAT2" was shown on the PFD. So, I thought that RNAV would be active - but the plane did not sink below 3000ft (which was the dialed in altitude). This led me to do a manual approach, but since the weather was quite heavy (40 knots wind on the nose, heavy rain), I had to do a go around. AP and AT were activated again and the plane was climbing to Missed Approach altitude and followed the desired route. I wanted to do a 2nd attempt, but I was unable to insert LFRS as a destination into the FMC again. Instead, LFPG was shown as the alternate airport. So, I have manually entered the waypoints and constraints of the new STAR until the FAF. When I have reached FAF, I was unable to to make an autoland, because I got the "Discontinuity" message and AP disengaged. I was unable to tell the FMC that I wanted to land at LFRS RWY21. Any attempts to insert LFRS in the "Fight Discontinuity" line failed as well as adding "LFRS" as a new waypoint behind the FAF. The big question is: What did I do wrong? Any help would be appreciated. 🙂 Ah, I am using Navdata from Navigraph btw... Best regards, Holger