FlyByWire simulations has taken to its Facebook page to announce the introduction of a brand new FMS and Performance Calculator for the development branch of its freeware A32NX aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator.
The new version of the FMS, the FMSv2, is a complete rewrite of the Honeywell Airbus FMS software found in all Airbus aircraft from the A320 onwards. The update adds many highly requested features and improvements over the previous FMS, which was based on the default Asobo A320 and Cessna CJ4 FMSs.
These improvements now allow the A32NX to perform missed approaches, load alternate flight plans, have improved logic and handling of FMS routing, improved logic for SID/STAR constraints and restrictions, and correct stringing of STARs with multiple IAFs.
The FlyByWire team mentioned that the previous flight planning system has a segmenting system that is prone to breaking and causing bugs, does not correctly manage origin and destination legs, has a data structure that doesn’t suit an airliner’s flight planning system, among other issues that motivated it to perform this complete rewrite of the system.
The FlyByWire team also made it clear that there are still a few issues with the FMSv2, which is why it’s still in the development branch. For instance, some SIDs are not properly displayed in the ND, the alternate fuel is not calculated in the INIT pages in some cases, and the CRZ FL/TEMP section on the INIT page may sometimes go blank when starting a descent.
FlyByWire Performance Calculator
Another new feature recently added to the A32NX is a custom-built performance calculator, available in the calculation section of the plane’s EFB. This performance calculator is able to calculate flap settings, FLEX settings, and V-speeds for takeoff, depending on all the relevant factors like wind speed and direction, aircraft weight, and runway length. For landing, the performance calculator is able to determine landing distance based on the runway conditions and length to let you know the best Autobrake setting and determine whether or not it is safe to land
Both the performance calculator and the FMSv2 are available now in the development version of FlyByWire’s A32NX for MSFS. You can check out the original announcement posts here and here. If you’d like to read more about FlyByWire, check out our previous article where George takes a look at the latest video of the A380X.
