NEWS! - Laminar Research releases Airbus A330 MCDU

[Stephen]

NEWS! - Laminar Research releases Airbus A330 MCDU - v12.05b1

 

 

It's a big update. Laminar Research have released X-Plane 12 Public Beta – 12.05b1, (it's a beta folks). With the release comes the promised MCDU system for the default Airbus A330-300. This MCDU is Airbus focused unlike the generic FMC that Laminar uses for most of it's platform. This aspect is a significant shift from an generic instrument to use all the aircraft.

 

 

My first impressions of the new MCDU (Multi-Function Control and Display Unit) was slightly disappointing? I thought at first it looks exactly like the generic FMC, not at all like an Airbus style font? Actually it is an Airbus B612 font design, but the wrong one for the aircraft, this font is only used on the A350/A380...  but it grows on you, by the end of this update, I quite liked it.

 

 

The set of MCDUs are positioned in front of the throttle quadrant...

 

 

First some good news...  both MCDUs are independent, you can use either to program the data. Both MCDUs pop-out for ease of use as well.

 

 

You can download the same flightplan (FMS) from the X-Plane OUTPUT/FMS Plans, but only via the CO (Company) RTE (Route) insert KL1... then the Departure and Arrival data input is done the same as in any Airbus MCDU.

 

 

Route editing is standard (CLR). Adding in waypoints was easy and so was creating a route from scratch.

 

 

However, I found the system would not accept a FL360 (36,000ft), yet I actually needed FL380? but had to settle for FL350 (35,000ft)

 

 

Second INIT page (Fuel Prediction) required the usual ZFW (Zero Fuel Weight) and BLOCK (Fuel) entries, and it worked as predicted.

 

 

Tricky is the "TAKEOFF PERF" page...  you need data _vRef Speeds, Trim (FLAPS/THS) and FLEX Temp. In most cases developers provide or insert this data, but here it is not available for the default aircraft? There is a calculator called perfcalc, that will compute the required data. It does a good job, but there is a lot of information required to fill it in, I used Navigraph Charts.

 

And that is the MCDU completed... 

 

 

.....   It's not bad actually and the editing is versatile. Done a few times you soon work it out and use it like a Pro. Heaps better than the old FMC system...

 

Honestly I couldn't fly the default Airbus A330-300 with the old FMC system, not after the quality of ToLiSS, or even FlightFactor. So I waited for this update before flying the aircraft (Okay I had one cheap quick flight at the X-Plane 12 beta release), now I can fly the A333.

 

 

An honest assessment is that the Laminar A330-300 is not a comprehensive Airbus system machine, as you can see in a lot of areas of what is missing, but your getting the aircraft free with X-Plane 12, not paying $69 dollars.The aircraft IS payware quality (Cabin is excellent), and the biggest advantage here is the A333 is a really great entrance for someone who wants to learn the Airbus aircraft and it's systems. As it is easier to set up and fly, overall now in this form the A330 does set a new standard for default aircraft from Laminar Research in X-Plane 12.

 

ON top of the new A330 MCDU, PB v12.05b1 is a very significant update

Public Beta – 12.05b1

X-Plane 12.05b1 introduces the Airbus MCDU for the A330 and many bug fixes.

• XPD-13946 – Some stability augmentation system active in all aircraft.
• XPD-13815 – Crash taxiing across latitude line at LFPG with wind set up.
• XPD-13677 – DSF Fatal Error Crashes the Sim instead of Quitting.
• XPD-13940 – Temperatures can jump dramatically near the tropopause.
• XPD-13706 – Text Offsets on EFIS Map not working for TCAS.
• XPD-12609 – Hang or dev assert in failed weapons load.
• XPD-5948 – Approach lights cut off when crossing longitude degree.
• XPD-13945 – THR LVR FMA doubled in A330.
• XPD-13925 – DataRefTool text display broken again.
• XPD-13702 – Clouds break MSAA.
• XPD-13559 – Replay system does not handle ground-speed acceleration well.
• XPD-13550 – OBJ with empty key frame table crashes sim.
• XPD-13530 – t_quit from thread hangs the sim and other sad things.
• XPD-13446 – From Bug Report: Landing Gear Failures within IOS (Do not Work).
• XPD-13354 – microburst doesn’t go away when you fix the failure.
• XPD-13954 – A330 FMC, clicking on the PERF button should always take you to the current active PERF phase page.
• XPD-13951 – A330 pack flow sound even if no bleed air available to drive the packs.
• XPD-13723 – Consider CURLSSLOPT_REVOKE_BEST_EFFORT option.
• XPD-13719 – From Bug Report: Editing Weapon Shell Geometry Using the Weapons’ UI Duplicates the Geometry to the Launcher.
• XPD-13682 – From Bug Report: Wake turbulence broken for 3rd party integrations.
• XPD-13540 – Additional CLI Adding Additional Options.
• XPD-13729 – Not able to reach North Pole with a CTD.
• XPD-13473 – Manufacture List Runs of Screen (Plane Maker).
• XPD-13910 – Tree rendering distance massively reduced.
• XPD-13849 – ATTR_shiny_rat undoes ATTR_albedo_opacity.
• XPD-13923 – Incorrect draw layer in some runways.
• XPD-13915 – Missing pipeline with custom billboard lights when recomputing the cube map.
• XPD-13912 – Airport Line Marking #19 “Taxiway Hatch” no more showing.
• XPD-13909 – DDS loader crashes trying to free memory.
• XPD-13891 – CTD when requesting clearance at an airport with no usable runways.
• XPD-13871 – Make (apt.dat) taxiway layering compatible with 3rd party X-Plane 11 scenery & libraries.
• XPD-13825 – X-Plane 12 and Plane Maker 12 CTD when opening an X-Plane 11 model.
• XPD-13707 – Flaps/Slats Timing Not Working.
• XPD-10868 – OpenGL plugin rendering flickering on AMD.
• XPD-13937 – Race condition in OBJ_read.cpp.
• XPD-13932 – Bug report “Black sun is still there”.
• XPD-13922 – SR-22 needs to use new command for blue level button.
• XPD-13914 – Take KBTV with updated road network into next beta.
• XPD-13913 – Zink doesn’t identify if the Zink libGL.so is pre-loaded through LD_PRELOAD.
• XPD-13911 – Remove Aerosoft – EDLP Paderborn-Lippstadt airport.
• XPD-13900 – 737 cabin altitude indicator pointer showing wrong value.
• XPD-13899 – RenderDoc can no longer capture X-Plane (Linux).
• XPD-13892 – Update global airports to add is_oilrig meta data.
• XPD-13869 – F14: Adjust Flap Interlock on Wing Sweep.
• XPD-13867 – L-5 airplane uses wrong dataref for turn coord, so i fixed it.
• XPD-13856 – Case mismatch in rpaths in libary.txt with actual file names.
• XPD-13830 – Rounding on LED generic instruments in plane maker needs to be ‘optionable’.
• XPD-13828 – Ford Carrier small update: removed animated Seahawk.
• XPD-13820 – Ford Carrier Vehicles update: library update.
• XPD-13819 – Ford Carrier Vehicles update.
• XPD-13808 – Updated earth_astro.dat (star positions database).
• XPD-13771 – Remove on screen debug information output from translations.
• XPD-13752 – No altitude sel armed when using right side Master for autopilot on Citation X.
• XPD-13660 – The direction of the slip indicator on the Citation is wrong.
• XPD-13643 – Crash with empty controller when requesting stop pushback.
• XPD-13616 – Real weather folder size increasing .
• XPD-13500 – KingAir smoke visible at night.
• XPD-13495 – “NONE” cannot be selected in fuel tank transfer list.
• XPD-13310 – WE NEED DEFAULT FUEL LOAD-OUT SPECCED IN PLN, AND APPLIED ON ACF LOAD AND START IN SIM.
• XPD-13169 – Once triggered, Master Warnings & Master Cautions fluctuate on and off continuously.
• XPD-13930 – Bug report “XPLMGetMETARForAirport does not retrieve latest METAR”.
• XPD-13902 – Bug report “Wierd looking engine smoke in F14D (fix included)”.
• XPD-13893 – Pro Use Frame Rate Test – Increase from 10 FPS to 20 FPS.
• XPD-13868 – Add support for Discord rich presence.
• XPD-13832 – CURLSSLOPT_REVOKE_BEST_EFFORT needs to be set separately for proxy.
• XPD-13811 – From Bug Report: sim/cockpit2/ice/tks_max_time_left goes down too fast.
• XPD-13810 – From Bug Report: Inappropriate effect of some failures.
• XPD-13174 – Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet .sit file bug .
• XPD-13061 – Total energy compensated variometer in Schleicher ASK21 shows wrong value.
• XPD-11896 – A330: Pushing in knobs on FCU should show “managed mode” white dots for SPD and HDG as well.
• XPD-10115 – B738: APU EGT levels regression.
• XPD-13906 – Re: Bug report “CH Pro Pedals – Axis labelling incorrect.”.
• XPD-13901 – Fully dark avionics draw at full brightness in ATTR_cockpit_device.

 

All out now on the X-Plane Installer, its a big 1.5Gb download...  just run the installer!

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News by Stephen Dutton

31st March 2023

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