Welcome to the next installment of The Workshop – a series dedicated to the latest news and updates regarding FlyByWire’s work on the A32NX and the upcoming A380. After a small break, we are back summarizing FlyByWire’s progress from the past month. Our previous episodes can be read here. The Workshop is written directly by the FlyByWire team within the FSNews and FlyByWire partnership.
Features of the Week
This week, some features have been merged into the latest development version of the aircraft.
- Visual aileron droop and anti-droop
- Added ANN LT DIM functionality
- Flight Model improvements for SU4 compatibility
- Added hydraulics page in ECAM
- Initial connection of electrical power to various hydraulic elements
- Improved OP CLB/DES, CLB/DES speed hold characteristics
- F/CTL page hydraulic indications + small misc changes to the F/CTL page
- APU Heat Blur effect
- ILS auto-tuning for departure and approach
Notes on Latest Hydraulics Implementation
Brakes are the first hydraulic components actually connected to the new hydraulic system. Until now they only had an impact on the pressure gauge as you may have noticed on the dev version, but the next improvement will connect the actual hydraulic braking force to the simulator physics.
Be mindful and always check that accumulator pressure gauge if it is empty, even the parking brake won’t help you to stop that plane!
Normal and alternate braking systems have been implemented. You will notice they can even stop the wheels from spinning when retracting the gear much like the real A320neo.
The changes are:
- Normal and alternate braking systems are implemented and independent.
- Automatic switch from normal to alternate if green pressure drops
- Yellow brake accumulator implementation
- Pressure limitations according to the braking system in use
- Auto wheel braking at gear retraction
Changes to Custom Autopilot
We’ve introduced some updated logic and features to the custom autopilot.
- FMA triple click and mode reversion logic
- NAV armed on ground when FPLN is available
- Improved ROLLOUT and AP disengage conditions
- Applies to excessive pitch or roll attitude
- Improved ground spoiler logic
- Corrected THR LK activation
- Improved managed speed and V2 validity
- Initialize FCU with correct default values + improved flight / plane load
Work in Progress
- Implementing updated engine and electrical sounds to the development version
- Secondary engine startup parameters – Oil PSI, quality and temperature, N1 and N2 vibrations
- flyPadOS 2
- Custom Flight Plan Manager
- Rewritten ND in ReactJS
Our next episode of The Workshop is scheduled to be published on June 25th, 2021.
