During bad weather, resulting in low visibility, a precision approach and landing are required in order to land safely. A precision approach is an instrument approach and landing using precision lateral and vertical guidance with minima as determined by the category of operation. A good overview can be found here. In the flight test you…
Continue ReadingSRTM Terrain Database
The EGPWS for our simulator was already developed some time ago. You can read all about it here. It was originally developed for use with FSX and obtains its terrain elevation data from FSX through an own developed probe scan technique. With the addition of Xplane 11 to the A320Sim Solution this technique is however not…
Continue ReadingRejected Takeoff
Before an aircraft is delivered to its new owner, it has to undergo a series of tests. Here you see an A321 Neo of Wizz Air before its delivery from Hamburg Finkenwerder that undergoes a brake test and a rejected rejected takeoff test. At the first run on the runway it brakes without applying Engine…
Continue ReadingXplane 11 interfacing with A320Sim
After happily flying for many years with FSX, my A320Sim software has now been interfaced with Xplane 11. A custom A320-200 aircraft model has been developed and the basic flight tests have been successfully passed. Now it was time for the real test: a full ILS autoland. In the video you see the complete ILS…
Continue ReadingHolding Patterns
After completing and adding the ARINC 424 NavDb capability to my A320Sim software, the next step was to implement each of the ARINC 424 leg types, also known as Path And Terminator’s, as defined in the Attachment 5 of the ARINC 424 specification. One particular and complex leg type is the Holding Pattern. There are…
Continue ReadingEngines
Let’s take a look at the aircraft engines that make the aircraft fly. The A320 uses what is called High Bypass Ratio Turbofan Engines. The basics first: if you are not familiar with how such an engine works, I really recommend you to spend 3 minutes watching the following video. This excellent video is…
Continue ReadingARINC 424 Navigation Database Parser
Most probably like you, I have been happily using Navigraph for many years as the Navigation Database for my A320Sim software. But that is not “As Real As It Gets” … To make my A320Sim Software even more realistic, I have invested some time to develop a software library that can read and extract data…
Continue ReadingSidestick Priority
With two original sidesticks in the cockpit, also the sidestick priority logic has been implemented in our A320 Sim software. In normal operation only one sidestick is used to give pitch and roll instructions to the flight computers and the opposite not used sidestick is kept in the neutral position. To couple both sidesticks to…
Continue ReadingCircuit Breakers
Like any aircraft, the A320 has a big number of Circuit Breakers (C/B) that play a vital role in the safety of the electrical systems. Most of them are located in the back of the cockpit behind the pilots and the most important ones in the upper overhead above the pilots. In our A320 Sim…
Continue ReadingFlight above the Alps
A flight above the Alps with all the modules of the A320 Simulator Software running together on a single PC. If you click on the image you can take a look in high resolution to look at the details. As described in an earlier blog, I started working on the different EIS Versions some time…
Continue ReadingEIS Versions
Airbus has two generations of its Electronic Instrument System (EIS). The first generation EIS 1 uses CRT screens for its Display Units (DU’s). Around mid 2002, Airbus introduced a new second generation EIS 2 that uses LCD screens for its DU’s. Beyond the new hardware choice of screens, there are also differences in software. EIS…
Continue ReadingWindshear
An extremely dangerous form of windshear is created by a microburst. As very wel explained in Wikipedia, a microburst is an intense small-scale downdraft produced by a thunderstorm or rain shower. As can be seen very well on the video, they go through three stages in their cycle: the downburst, outburst, and cushion stages also…
Continue ReadingApproach
The Instructor Station website allows the Flight Instructor to track the performance of the pilot’s approach and landing at the selected runway. The Approach Map page provides the actual horizontal (upper graph) and vertical (lower graph) flight path the pilot is flying in realtime (red line). It also provides the ideal path (solid green lines)…
Continue ReadingEGPWS
The Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) in the A320 Simulator Software has been implemented following the model and working of the Honeywell MK V and MK VII EGPWS. We are lined up on LSZB (Bern Switzerland) runway 14. We have enabled the Terrain on ND, and the EGPWS is showing the terrain information. With…
Continue ReadingTCAS
One of the systems that we have also implemented in the A320 Simulator Software is the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). It has been implemented following the model and working of the Honeywell CAS-81A (implementing TCAS II Change 7.0). ATC/TCAS control panel On the video below you can see the TCAS in action….
Continue ReadingFlight Recorder
The A320 Simulator has a Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR). Commonly referred to as a Black Box. It stores a vast number of parameters that are recorded in realtime to a file. We are using the Elasticsearch Open Source project to perform offline analysis of the recorded flight data. Below you see the flight analysis…
Continue ReadingEngine Fire
The flight instructor triggers fire in Engine 1 during flight… Performing the required ECAM actions the fire is extinguished.
Continue ReadingStandby Horizon
The Standby Horizon is a gyroscopic attitude indicator. It is also sometimes refered to as the artificial horizon. It is a precision flight instrument that informs the pilot of the aircraft orientation relative to Earth’s horizon. It is a standby instrument that is used only in case when the horizon on the Primary Flight Display…
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