When it just doesn't work

Flight Sims
1

Sometimes you come across something that just puzzles you and you are thankful when you finally discover what is wrong.

So I’m flying the JAR Airbus A320 yesterday for an article I’m writing, and it has dual ADF receivers. The approach I’m shooting uses two separate NDBs for course guidance. I have ADF1 set to one frequency, ADF2 set to another frequency. The only problem is, ADF1 is pointing to the wrong place. I can’t figure it out. It’s depicted on the map in the right place, and the needle is “alive”…but it isn’t pointing to the right place. Are my switches wrong? Is it a bug with the avionics?

So I hop in the default Cessna 172, put in the NDB frequency - aha! - the needle swings to the correct location. So, it is a problem with the A320. Do some digging. Uses it’s own navigation database. Open the nav database, find the NDB and compare the LAT/LON with the default X-Plane LAT/LON for the same NDB. They are off by a few seconds in both LAT and LON. Edit the numbers, climb back in the A320, and all is fine.

The problem is, the initial trying to figure it out took me a couple hours to eliminate the avionics and my setup as the problem (is the INS not aligned correctly? Is the GPS not working?). Argh. Anyway…this kind of thing happens in real life occasionally too. Jeppesen occasionally sends out critical NAV alerts to alert users to database errors. I don’t know if it’s typos, corrupt files, or bad copy/pastes or whatever…but it happens.

All is right once again with the A320 world though.

BeachAV8R

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Im very interested in said article. I got the Airbus bundle for FSX but FSX is currently my second choice for flight sims.

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Me too. I spend most of my time in X-Plane. When I go back to FSX + ORBX + Active Sky Next I’m always amazed by the details and visuals of the scenery…but I hate the FSX lighting (interior) and I really can’t get over the sterile airplane feel compared to X-Plane. XP just seems so much more fluid and translates well the feeling of plowing through air. I’ve tried over the years to explain it…but it really is a feel thing.

If we could get ORBX making scenery for X-Plane…that’d be the ultimate…because I do like my ORBX mesh in FSX…

BeachAV8R

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