Fenix A320 Tutorial: Landing (+Descent & ILS Approach) with a Real Airbus Pilot! Beginner Friendly

Wonder if you can help. Did a short trip from EGKK to LEMD in this Fenix A320 today.

All relatively fine, except for descent. I found it was quite fiddly to press the descent knob to select managed descent, and eventually when I pressed it it just went to OP DES. I'm aware that's "open descent" and the plane started to descend at around 5,000 FPM, with the speed rapidly climbing. I eventually got to click it repeatedly and somehow got it into managed mode when the descent stopped and levelled off, then pitched down to around -500fpm. It continued at -500fpm for a while until I hit the indicated TOD on the PFD, and the green dot then came level and moved down, and the plane followed it. However after a few more waypoints the descent profile was going below the current pitch altitude of the plane despite being in managed descent mode (the green dot was well below my current altitude). I eventually "Caught it up" with the assistance of spoilers to slow the plane.

Got setup for final approach and on final, I opted for an ILS, the visibility into Madrid in the sim was extremely poor and you couldn't even see the runway 1 mile out for landing. I had LS armed on the captain's side where I was flying from and AP armed on the same side. I tried to arm AP2 on the first officer's side but it just switched from AP1 to AP2, I switched it back to AP1. I didn't arm LS on the first officer's side but I don't think it matters as that autopilot was not active. I captured the localiser in terms of vertical profile and then swung sharp left turn to line up, and captured the horizontal diamond. I haven't flown the 320 in a while but as I understand there isn't an "Approach" button or if there is it isn't required. I had "LOC" enabled but the diamonds only had the pink outline, the diamonds never went FULLY PINK (when they are filled in).

I let autopilot fly it down until just above the runway when it seemed to pitch up again and didn't seem to slow down (I had autothrottle engaged), and fearing that if I left it it would just fly above the runway and a go around would be required I just disengaged AP and hand flew it, slightly bumpy landing but didn't go off the runway and still landed well within the parameters of the runway length.

I would be grateful if you could answer these questions.

I assume BOTH AP1 and AP2 are required for a full CAT 3 auto land procedure? 
I also assume (and I believe I'm correct in saying so) that Madrid Barajas Runway 32R ILS IS category three auto land configured?
On capturing the localiser, the pink diamonds appeared but ONLY the outline diamonds, not the fully shaded ones... is there an approach button I stupidly forgot to enable? Or is there likely another reason they didn't go fully pink? The plane did seem to follow the diamonds however although it was at the top of the vertical diamond most of the time.

Finally, on the EFB, on the arrival performance page. I can't actually see how you generate the V Speeds for approach. I've selected the runway and the condition (Wet) in my case but it just shows a runway on the right side of the EFB screen with "XX" where the runway compass numbers would be. i.e "32R". I don't see any option to "Calculate" the V Speeds for approach like you get in the EFB on the departure perf menu.

Hope this makes sense and I appreciate any responses.

I don't know if the fenix is better, probably latest navigraph data fixes it, but the default MSFS A320 does select the wrong approach frequencies sometimes, so this verification step is important for that sim, I've had it start flying in circles when I hit the approach button.

Is this for computer or Xbox?

Something my ground school teacher told us about PAPIs is, “4 white, you’re high, 4 red, you’re dead”. I never needed that to remember as PAPI lights are pretty self explanatory but I always found it as a funny saying he taught us.

the normal a320 doesnt have options for "via" and "stars" in the mcdu? should i just buy the fenix version?

Who else missed there decent watching this😞

So what if ATC holds me at a lower ALT for the entire flight and the plane never “progresses” into cruz phase? Can I somehow get it to change phase, or is it necessary? Recently ATC held me at FL140 and so the plane never moved out of climb phase.

How do I know if its a Cat1 or Cat2 etc ILS. I don’t understand the differences and how to know

What happens when the Discontinuity will NOT clear. It says Not Allowed

Priceless advices and videos !

For the approach what should I enter if the metar tells me VRB04kt for example ? Thx ! <3

For some reason my ALT won't go into managed mode? I switched to legacy and get the arrows, but pushing the knob in doesn't switch to managed (no dot).
EDIT: Ok still don't understand what I was doing wrong but after dialing the ALT down (because I thought I would have to do it manually), I then pushed it again and then it went to managed.
So that's good but the bad news is the AC then dove down pretty hard and also tried to set a really low managed speed of like 120 and next thing I know everythinn is flipping out, AP disengages and alarms everywhere hahaha. Guess I need to restart that flight :D

I was setting up for a short flight KBOS to KLGA and in the MCDU FLTPLAN I saw "Too Steep Path" between two fixes(?) in the ILS chart. I checked the FMS against the charts and the altitudes seemed correct, 3000 at the first (YOMAN) and 1900 at the second (GREKO) not sure what I did wrong or how to fix that.

I had to come back and watch these videos again after flying GA and Garmin stuff for a while. Thanks so much for sharing! You really should get paid for all this info 😜 Honestly, I could see your company actually using these as learning aids.

A very good tutorial, tried following it religiously, a couple of hiccups and it got me on the ground, my descent was a bit steep, but practice will do it. But, I have found that recently when on ATC, they sometimes give instructions a bit late, but if they are busy, they are doing what they can.

Can the arrival/approach sequence be done ahead of time? Or does it have to be done in flight?

Brilliant teacher 100% i love watching your videos. You explain things properly even beginners understand you as a rule I only watch your videos especially because your a real pilot who better to learn from. All your video alerts are always on. More videos the better thanks for spending your spare time teaching others its defo much appreciated

Is there an easy way of knowing where the point of decent will be? Took a short flight from DFW to TUL this evening and the AP never started decent. So I was forced to go into a pattern to lose altitude.

Hope your all good sir in Croatia at the moment good pizza

Can you capture from above ?

Such great content. I notice nose light was set to 'taxi' on approach', but I don't recall it going to 'to'. Did I miss it, you don't normally do it, or just a mishap or preference? I recall seeing some leave it on 'taxi' until cleared to land, as a reminder of clearance status, and only then to 'to'.

Well, thank you so much. Brilliant work mate.

I am new to the airbus and having some issues with the descent profile. I am cruising along and the TOD is shown on map. I have the autopilot doing everything and the mcp altitude is set to the first decent level waypoint but it won't start descending on its own. I hafta switch it to open descent and manually make it descend. It just Flys right over the TOD then says "decelerate" . What am I or the airplane doing wrong ?

hello, i have a quick question.
how do i know what the active runway is for departure and landing. i checked the winds at zurich, and they were at 010 degrees, however, the active landing runway was not the one closest to 010 degrees, which is really confusing me, so i want to know how to determine the active runway
thanks

Where did you get the touchdown sound in the cabin ?

good tutorial

As a first time user these videos are amazing. Thankyou!

Hi. How do you get the IPAD with the different apps in MSFS? Nice video!

Want a shot

Indeed, a big thanks for explaining navigating the A320 the way you do, highly appreciated!

I have only recently started my MSFS journey and I have found your videos so helpful and great! Thank you for taking the time in doing these.

I am "Sim-Qualifying" myself on the Fenix A-320. I am a real life pilot who is currently on the 777. Getting ready to retire 9/23. You, sir, are my ONLY resource for training my sim-brain to manage this product. Outstanding! Thank you so much. What a blast!

Thanks!

So on touch down you do idle and reverse thrust but i see other pilots do idle at 30 feet altough i believe og idle at touch down will make a more stable and smitter landing whats right correct me if you will😅

Have you done a video explaining the other four "Runway condition" options in the arrival performance app? I would really like to know when exactly I should be using those other options.

Thank you for the amazing content!

does the managed descent work with one engine out ?

I think the DME difference is because the distance shown on the PFD is to the localizer antenna which is at the far end of the runway, whereas the distance in the MCDU is to the runway threshold based on your GPS position, no? Amazing videos, I'm loving all of them and can't wait for more!

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Outanding

That was the best landing with the A320 I've seen

I copied your flight in every detail and followed what you did precisely but for some reason I don't understand, just after the Lam waypoint the autopilot disengaged for no apparent reason, wouldn't re-engage and the plane just went crazy. First it pitched violently down, then pitched up, dropped to stall speed but at the same time was calling for "more drag" on the display. The really strange part was even though the autopilot was disengaged the plane was counteracting my inputs as if it were still on autopilot and no matter what I did, it was determined to crash. Any thoughts on what might have happened? BTW the failure settings are off so it shouldn't have been a random malfunction.

Do you find the touchdown marker a little bit short of the runway threshold? I don't know why but it feels like it

Thanks for this great tutorial. Is it possible to make a pattern training video some day to improve landing skills? Merry Christmas 🎄

Great Video but is there no video about taxing to the gate and shutdown procedures?

Fantastic video which cleared some of my questions from LBW A32nx (BTW, I don't have Fenix "yet"). One thing I find a bit strange when comparing FBW A320 and B738. I set up a flight from BIKF to BIRK via Mikvu and RKF19 and the Airbus followed the plan to about half way between Mikvu and RKF19 and then did a hard left U-turn and did a circle around the mountain to the right and then hit WP RKF19, intercepted Loc and G/S and landed successfully. BTW, I did not select Star when programming the MCDU and in fact repeated the flight to ensure I hadn't. With the Boeing, it followed the plan all the way, intercepted the ILS and landed successfully. Is the Airbus that clever that it knows a star for the approach or was it some technical fluke? On another or perhaps a related landing issue, how do we fly a successful ILS with offset Localizer? There has to be some simple answer to that or there would be an unacceptable risk for first time landings at airports with that kind of layouts. I'd love to see a good video on the subject.

Great tutorial, and let's pause a moment to acknowledge how beautiful FS2020 looks!