It has been an intense week for the team at Fenix Simulations. Following the announcement of the A319 and A321 for MSFS, the team went to work to put the final touches on the V2 Block 1 update for its A320, but ended up encountering a critical bug deeply embedded within the core code of the aircraft, severely affecting performance. This challenge manifested itself in slower system code which, in turn, led to issues such as jittery displays, erratic flight controls, and the Flight Director malfunctioning.
However, following a rigorous 72-hour debugging session, the team managed to pinpoint and rectify the bug in a mere 20 minutes. With this issue addressed, Fenix Simulations has finally released today the V2 Block 1 update for the Airbus A320!
The development team is keen to highlight changes in flight dynamics and flare behavior in this update. Simmers are urged to familiarize themselves with these changes before submitting any feedback. While the team believes these updates present an improvement, they’ve also observed inconsistencies in the simulator’s updrafts and downdrafts, especially on clear days. To mitigate these irregularities and enhance the flying experience, it’s recommended users adjust their turbulence settings downwards.
See Also
Fenix Airbus: Update für den A320 | MSFS | FSNews24Fenix A320 V2: Erster Teil erschienen | FSNews24Fenix Simulations Updates A320 & Delineates Plans for the Future - ThresholdFenix Simulations updates their A320 to v1.0.5.139
This V2 Block 1 update has an extensive changelog, which you will find summarised below. It’s also essential to remember that while this update brings over a thousand different changes across various domains, certain avionic and system overhauls have been reserved for the Block 2 update, scheduled for September. Those waiting for updates such as the hydraulic overhaul or brake temperature simulation revamp should anticipate these in the forthcoming release.
This update is free to all existing owners of the Fenix A320 for MSFS. Find it on your Fenix account, download it, and install it. For everyone else, the A320 continues to be available at just £49.99 GBP.
V2 Block 1
A320 CFM V1.5.1.198
[APP]
- Removed legacy display render options
- Forced default to new display renderer
- Added checkbox to enable legacy display selection, CPU only
- Added checkbox to enable display synchronisation
- Added “?” next to options in order to explain functionality, replacing tooltips
[EFB]
- Fixed weight and balance discrepancies
- Updated layout to 180 PAX
- Updated EFB Map to support AMDB and new Navi Maps
- Removed loading bars from Map and Charts to facilitate faster load-in
[DISPLAYS]
- Complete rewrite and redrawing of PFD encompassing fonts, colours, element size and positioning, matched pixel by pixel to real display.
- Complete rewrite and redrawing of ND encompassing fonts, colours, element size and positioning, matched pixel by pixel to real display.
- Complete rewrite and redrawing of Upper ECAM encompassing fonts, colours, element size and positioning, matched pixel by pixel to real display.
- Complete rewrite and redrawing of Lower ECAM encompassing fonts, colours, element size and positioning, matched pixel by pixel to real display.
- Complete rewrite and redrawing of FCU encompassing fonts, colours, element size and positioning, matched pixel by pixel to real display.
- Complete rewrite and redrawing of Clock Display encompassing fonts, colours, element size and positioning, matched pixel by pixel to real display.
- Increased brightness of all displays for better visibility in bright daylight.
- Rewrote the entire display render pipeline to increase performance, the old display pipeline is still supported but not recommended.
[FM, FBW & AUTOFLIGHT]
- Rudder authority retuned system side to provide consistent behavioural output to the user
- Fixed a bug with aileron ground-to-normal blending law, now correctly blending in 0.5s per the real aircraft
- Retuned aileron response times during blending
- Retuned and refined fly-by-wire implementation re Yaw x Roll relationship, the aircraft should now more appropriately compensate for roll moments induced by introducing rudder input
- Retuned lateral ground friction values in conjunction with the above rudder authority changes to ensure cohesive and consistent lateral control properties
- Fixed a bug with the fly by wire inhibiting aileron orders being sent when the aircraft was in FLARE mode
- Reworked spoiler deployment to dump lift faster, ensuring the aircraft settles quickly
- Rewritten control surface parameters
- Adjusted gyro and other stability factors in FM
- Externalised elevator dynamics into system code
- Implemented proprietary surface deflection and dynamic pressure simulation to elevator code
- Adjusted aileron handling properties
- Adjusted aircraft inertia
- Adjusted elevator-code effectiveness to achieve desired pitch-rate in direct law
- Adjusted roll rate in raw flightmodel/direct law
- Rewrote Fly-by-Wire entirely with correct C* Law fundamental philosophy
- Implemented corrected C* Law mathematics and computations
- Adjusted data-flow for inputs/outputs used by the fly-by-wire algorithms
- Adjusted/corrected data bias in C* calculations for different flight states
- Added dynamic stick mapping as featured on real aircraft based on aircraft state and C* Limits
- Fixed THS movement being inhibited while stick input is detected
- Adjusted elevator limits in line with specified limitations on real aircraft in flight
- Retuned FBW pitch axis for change in elevator
- Retuned FBW pitch axis for less off-axis snap
- Retuned FBW roll axis for change in aileron
- Retuned FBW roll axis for less roll-in snap
- Generalised AP PID tuning to accommodate large scale changes to flight dynamics
- Retuned AP PIDs for more response, better behaviour in ALT Capture Modes
- Retuned AP PIDs for better FD coupling
- Retuned ATHR for better response and accuracy
- Corrected FBW load factor limits per system spec
- Corrected direct law elevator limits, resulting in a slight increase in nose “weight” when rotating
- Retuned FBW roll compensator for increased precision during roll manoeuvres
- Retuned FBW pitch compensator for increased precision during speed changes
- Retuned FLARE mode properties for new flight dynamics
- Fixed oscillations during substantial pitch manoeuvres
- Fixed oscillations during 2x simspeed
- Adjusted FLARE/GROUND flight control unlatch logic and properties
- Adjusted THS zero logic post touchdown to incorporate correct activation gates
- Adjusted trim entries in raw flightmodel for better accuracy and post-rotation stability
- Improved autopilot rudder use for single engine flight (yes, we know, engine model still not good in single engine flight!)
[AVIONICS & SYSTEMS]
- Sync’d systems and MSFS icing, icing now works and affects aircraft, anti-ice systems now effective
- Swapped old nasty TERR out for new shiny PEAK mode TERR
- Fixed crash in calculation of alternate fuel
- Fixed MCDU LATREV page crash
- Fixed spurious ECAM faults when IRS not aligned on ground
- Added IR NOT ALIGNED ECAM
- Fixed issue where ECAM advisories would not call the associated page because other advisories were still active
- Added blinking ECAM align message for alignment failure
- Fixed swapped left and centre gear MIP indicators
- Fixed LNAV CF legs flying too for away before turning inbound
- Fixed incorrect bleed temp on ECAM for engine 2
- Fixed inconsistencies in wind data between IRS outputs on hybrid GPIRS system
- Added DME bias to ILS DME classes and DME calculations
- Do not change appearance of roll limit indicators in PFD attitude during alpha protection
- Modified emergency exit signs to use LGCIU signal 12 and fix signs auto mode to use the same signal 12 (tl;dr – gear up ding now study level)
- Fixed issues with ALTN FUEL/TIME calculation
- Added clamp for new LNAV CF code to not be called if output is not a correct shortcut
- Fixed ECAM advisories in single ECAM mode
- Fixed PPOS on empty FPLN does not maintain the same ID
- Fixed V/DEV jumps during descent when toggling between selected and managed speed
- Small modification/clamp to idle descent angle calculation logic, calculations unchanged
- Adjusted logic to clear active advisories when FWC inop
- Fixed some DX12 bugs/crashes
- Smoothed out aileron droop to align with flap extension
- Fixed an issue where VNAV did not properly calculate distances, causing routing issues (EGCC23R/SONEX1R)
- Make sure CLB or DES prompt appears when altitude constraint entered directly on FPLN page in cruise phase
- Fixed an issue where some descend altitude constraints could be missed
- Fixed ECAM CRUISE engine data not showing advisories for vibration data
- When engine not running, display eng limit according to thrust lever position
- Engine pressure indication should show values in increments of 2
- Adjusted parking brake pressure
- Added start valve not closed ECAM procedure
- Improved conditions for detecting start valve faults
- Fixed L/G not down ECAM message during go around with MCT thrust
- Allow spoiler panel control on the ground
- Fixed alpha floor engaging only at alpha max
- Fixed FADEC fault displayed as engine failure
- Fixed traffic indication on ND should not have the alt delta be affected by QNH setting (VATSIM fix)
- Rewrote DECEL pseudo waypoint generation algorithm
- Fixed SEC F-PLN distance calculation bug
- Fixed issue with FCU alt being replaced by CST alt on RNAV approaches, despite FCU alt > CST alt
- Keep departure runway visible on ND
- Added lavatory smoke failure
- Fixed null pointer exception (autoflight)
- Added an extra alt constraint check after construction of the idle descend path to detect any missed constraints that were created due to the idle descend computation
- Fix crash in descend validation (VNAV)
- Fixed flight control surface droop while HYD failure active during flight, added new simulation for unpowered surfaces while in the air
- Added new and improved autopilot asymmetric thrust rudder controller for single engine flight
- Fixed and latched FLARE FMA on long/floated landings, should no longer revert to V/S and Heading
- VATSIM TCAS fix… again (limitation as of current is users with different simulators appearing at different altitudes due to the differences in the way different simulators calculate/handle pressure)
- Modified reversion from DES/CLB & OPEN DES/OPEN CLB when FCU altitude increased/decreased to above/below aircraft actual altitude
- Fixed erroneous FMA indications during climb when current altitude exceeds next WPT climb alt
- Removed custom ground friction code
- Fixed reversal of FWC to master warning upper/lower annunciator connections
- Added new transition selection logic, to autoselect transition if only 1 is available
- Added discontinuity to route drawing if approach is selected, and two or more transitions exist but are NOT selected
- Added VNAV calculations for speed and altitude in SEC FPLN
- Set auto-TCAS off by default
- LBS ZFW entry box corrected to 3 boxes instead of 2
- PFD indications with ADIRS off have been fixed
- ENTER DEST DATA message logic corrected, should no longer trigger for no minima
- OPT FL on PROG page logic fixed, should now depend correctly on INIT A + B
- CHECK IRS/AIRPORT POS and REF/GPS POS DIFF MCDU messages added
- FAC autotest extended simulation added, to be refined further
- FMGC autotest extended simulation added, to be refined further
- Incorrect TOD calculation when an early and high alt restriction is input fixed
- FMS approach page, “º” symbol disappears after inserting temperature value fixed
- PFD FD in FMA has incomplete symbology, missing “1 FD -” and “- FD 2” types, now fixed.
- 1FD2 on PFD Logic Error, 1FD2 shown on PFD while FAC 1+2 are tripped, fixed.
- Panel 50VU, APU TEST lights up wrong lights, now triggers APU FIRE LOOP
- Caging always puts the STBY horizon to the correct attitude, fixed.
- EGPWS functions available with LOW NAV Accuracy now fixed, should no longer provide enhanced coverage when nav accuracy is low
- OPT FL available on the progress page with no data inserted, fixed
- ADIRS Test Behaviour refined
- CHECK IRS/AIRPORT POS and REF/GPS POS DIFF MCDU messages missing refined further
- Corrected SOFT CRZ activation parameters w.r.t timing lockout
- Airway Entry page should no longer auto-scroll
- Improved Metric/Imperial unit standardisation, Fahrenheit (ew) added to duct and cabin temp readouts
- Enroute VORs should no longer double display on ND
- Fixed random decelerations and speed reversions in VNAV
- Rewritten descent vertical submode switching logic according to speed margins and descent segment (early/pressurisation, idle, geometric)
- Redefined criteria for VNAV over/under speed and speed margins
- Changed logic for speed targets in DES (VUM/VLM/Vprof, Vhold, etc)
- During LGCIU 1+2 fault, APs are now added to inactive systems
- “Altitude waypoints” should no longer display altitude CSTR on ND
- Corrected ND symbology when TO waypoint with MANUAL LEG
- L/DEV showing on non RNP AR SIDs (temp fix – have removed them, but waiting on better data from Navigraph to ID RNP ARs on SIDs before adding them for <0.3nm cases)
- “ATA” or first time on the FPLN page should now show in large font on MCDU
- Corrections to FMA logic w.r.t armed modes during descent
- L/DEV and V/DEV scales on PFD for NPAs should appear once approach phase activated in MCDU, not APPR PB on FCU.
- Corrected FCU 1+2 Fault under LAND mode to inhibit loss of APs/FDs/FMA
- Corrected landing capability freeze below 100ft RA
- SEC 1+2+3 Fault Direct Law condition corrected to Flap Handle input
- FMGC predictions now work without IRS aligned
- Corrected EWD memo for TLA not in idle during start
- Fixed issue with incorrect speed targets being fed to MCDU during DES
- Fixed Hydraulic failure/off ACCU PRESS logic on HYD page
- Adjustment to speed change/magenta markers logic
- Corrected FOB amber box
- Fixed holds with trackCode HM should not show as MANUAL in the MCDU, correct layout now built
- Improved guidance in DES mode
- Improved F-G/S and DES in APPR phase logic
- Added CONF2+ condition for switching to G/A phase by TLA position
- Fixed null battery data causing a crash in displays
- Prevented incorrect selection of FCU speed
- Returned belowProfile as an overspeed recovery option
- Improved DES in approach phase VPath speed logic
- Adjusted reversions for DES and F-G/S modes in approach
- Fixed incorrect distance map causing VNAV errors
- Adjusted XPNDR edit logic, entry inhibited when 4 digit entry present
- Adjusted A/THR FMA mode display – cancelled IDLE msg override by the actual EWD
- During ANN LIGHT TEST, ATC Panel digits corrected to ‘8888’
- Corrected IRS/GPS data mixing during startup flow, inhibiting NAV ACCUR UPGRAD message during aircraft power-up
- Attempted to reduce nose-down moment on touchdown by correcting FLARE logic control bias post-touchdown
- Inhibited V/S during pushback manoeuvres
- Added logic to CABIN READY memo, now occurs randomly during taxi-out and approach – in order to expedite, push CALL BUTTON
- Fixed incorrect EPE that showed when no data was available, it is now dashed if no EPE is computed
- DES guidance will now always honour the alt CST in holdings and FCU alt even if no level-off flag is set.
- Fixed and connected both LP valve power sources to fire buttons
- Fixed issue with DES not dashing MCDU PROG CRZ alt.
- Added automatic assignment of CRZ ALT if none inserted on takeoff
- Change FCU ALT > CRZ ALT, CRZ FL Update in MCDU behaviour to correct spec
- Fixed FCU Alt > CRZ Alt not updating in PFD
- Fixed “IRS IN ALIGN” should always show the “Greater Than 7” Symbol when time to align is equal to 7 Minutes or more.
- Disabled Brake Temps simulation when NWS Disconnected
- Removed Sidestick Realistic Option.
- Fixed setting Thrust Levers to TOGA with Engines Off causes both Avionics Ventilation In and Outlet to close. Should stay open with Engines Off.
- Fixed MCDU INIT B FUEL PRED page bug when cold and dark
- Fixed “IRS MONITOR” on the MCDU shows time to align double.
- Fixed VNAV bug with block altitude restriction targeting wrong alt
[VISUALS]
- co*ckpit & displays made brighter during the day and at higher altitudes
- Slight texture cleanup to reduce level of wear in co*ckpit
- Cabin & galley optimisations (increase in performance noted in testing)
[SOUND]
- Engine start and shutdown sound logic improved (no more start noises when wind-milling with the master switch on)
- Buzzsaw improved (especially during climb/cruise)
- N2 whine reworked in all phases of flight
- Engine inlet airflow noise improved
- co*ckpit wind rebuilt to be 3D with better recordings
- Cabin packs sample improved
- AEVC volume in co*ckpit adjusted
- Exterior sound volume levelling
- Exterior doppler effect added
- Rear cabin soundset returns
- Call Buttons enabled/working
- Gear retraction recording improved
- Gear wind noise improved
- Optimisation of the soundset (lower memory/CPU cost)
- Spoiler drag noise improved
[KNOWN ISSUES]
- EXPED is a magic space button. Not behaving correctly at the moment.
- AP roll is a little too snappy on certain occasions
- Pitch FD bar coupling could be better
- DIR TO with no FROM/TO entries causes crashes
