# A320/330/340 Panels for FS2002

## version 1.0

### by Eric MARCIANO
(emarciano@free.fr)

##

## Introduction

I have always enjoyed flying the Airbus aircrafts in MSFS, especially the A320. With FS2000, many A320 aircrafts and panels have been designed by various authors. Among these, my favorite aircraft was the A320 designed by IADG, and the A320 panel designed by Andrea Jaros from FPDA. When FS2002 came out, I was happy to see that the IADG A320 aircraft was still working well, but very disapointed because the panel designed by Andrea Jaros wouldn't work any more. I saw many posts on FPDA forum, asking Andrea to port his panel on FS2002, but nothing came out. Some panel designers tried to deliver panels for Airbus aircrafts, but they were not as good as my old favorite panel.
So I decided to develop my own A320 panel, which can be used with all the twin engine airbuses (A318/319/320/321/330), and I extended this panel for all the 4-engine airbuses (A340/380). To do this, I had to develop brand new gauges dedicated to Airbus aircrafts. As I am a C/C++ programmer, I had not much difficulty to learn how to develop gauges, but I am a poor graphic designer. I did my best, and I was helped by Peter Skotte for graphics.
I also used the RealCRT gauges, developed by Tony d'Ambrosio. These are shareware gauges. I know that many of you don't want to spend money more than necessary, but I think these gauges are worth the price. I bought them the same day I downloaded them for free trial. They work perfect with FS2002, and they bring high realism and nice graphics thanks to the use of OpenGL. I plan to deliver a version with default FS2002 gauges, for people who don't have (or don't want) RealCRT gauges.

This panel has been designed for FS2002, but it also works with FS2000. It is optimized for 1024x768 full-screen resolution, but should work properly with any other screen resolution. It was designed to be as close as possible from the real panel (as much as FS2002 permits, and as far as I know the real aircraft...), and to provide maximum readability: big screens, readable fonts, and wide outside view. Managing all these constraints is not easy...

It has been designed and tested with the following aircrafts:

- A320: A320 aircraft from IADG, and A320 aircraft from Precision-Sim Designs (http://www.precision-simdesigns.com).
- A330: A330-200 and A330-300 from Project Opensky (http://www.avsim.com/posky)
- A340: A340 by Mark Harper (mark.harper@btconnect.com)

It should work with any 2 or 4-engine jet aircraft, but if you want to use this panel with another aircraft, please read this paragraph.

Note about this documentation:
All the text written in green italic describes features that are not realistic (not implemented in the real aircraft), but which are helpful for flying the aircraft in FS2002.

## The Panel

The main window panel is composed of 4 EFIS:

- PFD (primary flight display)
- ND (navigation display)
- E/WD (engine/warning display)
- SD (system display)

and other instruments & switches:

- Autopilot
- Barometric
- Landing Gear & Autobrake
- Standby Airspeed
- Standby Altitude
- Standby Attitude
- Clock
- DDRMI
- Light switches
- Signs

The pedestal window contains:

- Radio
- Transponder (XPNDR)
- Page Keys and panel lighting
- Spoilers & Flaps commands
- Rudder trim command
- Parking Brakes command
- Throttle gauge
- Engine starters

Two additional windows contain:

- GPS
- FMC

The bottom part of the panel contains 3 buttons which don't appear like standard buttons. These sensitive parts allow you to show or hide the additional windows, but are not real buttons...

- PED is for the Pedestal window
- GPS is for the GPS window
- FMC is for the Flight Management Computer window

###

Primary Flight Display & Flight Director

| This EFIS is part of the RealCRT gauges developed by Tony d'Ambrosio. It includes a digital attitude indicator, and displays useful information: - Airspeed in knots in the scrolling tape - Airspeed in Mach - Airspeed programmed on the autopilot - Current heading - Heading programmed on the autopilot - Current altitude in the scrolling tape - Altitude programmed on the autopilot - Barometric setting for altitude (in In of Hg) - Autopilot modes

This screen can also display flight director bars connected to the autopilot or to the landing system. To activate the flight director bars, use the flight director command buttons located under the barometric setting gauge.

The FD button activates the flight director mode, with 2 bars indicating the autopilot altitude and heading settings. The LS button activates the landing system mode, where the 2 bars indicate the vertical and lateral deviation on an ILS approach.

###

Navigation Display & FCU (Flight Control Unit)

| This EFIS is also part of the RealCRT package. It displays the waypoints, airports and navaids surrounding the aircraft. It also shows the current heading, programmed heading, wind strength and direction.

The ND EFIS is connected to the FCU, which is used to select the ND mode. The FCU is located next to the autopilot panel.

| The first rotating button selects the ND mode (3 ROSE modes, and 3 ARC modes). The second rotating button selects the ND range. The 5 push buttons on the upper part show or hide the corresponding items on the ND screen: - CSTR for the route - WPT for the waypoints - VORD for the VOR navaids - NDB for the NDB navaids - ARPT for the airports The 2 ADF/VOR switches are fake and inoperative.

For more information about PFD and ND, please refer to Tony d'Ambrosio's documentation of RealCRT gauges.

###

Engine / Warning Display

| This EFIS shows a lot of useful information about engines, fuel, flaps... The layout is slightly different for 2 and 4-engine aircrafts. It displays messages about the aircraft systems in 2 text areas. The top left part shows N1, EGT, N2 and Fuel Flow (FF) for each engine. 2 index rotating around both N1 displays show the throttle lever positions The top right part shows the FADEC position (IDLE, MCT, FLX, CLB or TOGA). The blue indication shows the MAX percentage of N1 that you can obtain. In some cases, this display is wrong. I'm sorry, but FS2002 does not provide the information necessary for this... FOB is the total quantity of remaining fuel (in KG) The flap display shows the flap handle position (in blue) and the actual position for flaps and slats. If you use this panel with your aircraft, this display may be wrong. Read this note. For 4-engine aircrafts, the layout is different but the information shown are the same.

The bottom part of the screen contains 2 message areas.
The left area displays dynamic messages about gears, engines, signs, etc... The messages are shown in different colors according to the level of alarm:

- GREEN for normal messages
- YELLOW for low level warning
- AMBER for mid level warning
- RED for high level alerts

Mid and high level alerts also highlight alert lights (and sounds) on the top part of the panel.

| The master caution light is for mid level warnings, and the Master Warning light is for the most dangerous alerts. When ON, Master Warning light flashes with an alert sound. To stop this, you have to press the EMERGENCY CANCEL button on the Pedestal.

Message | Reason
CONFIG | The elevator trim position is out of the authorized interval for take off, or the airspeed is too high for this flap configuration
HIGH AIRSPEED | The airspeed is higher than 250 kts below 10000 ft ASL
UNSUFFICENT FUEL | The total quantity of fuel is low
LOW FUEL | The total quantity of fuel is VERY low, it is dangerous
ENGINE x OFF | The x engine is OFF. If aircraft is in flight, it generates an alarm.
HIGH GROUND SPEED | The aircraft is taxiing at a speed higher than 30 kts
MAX TIRES SPEED | The maximum speed for the tires is reached on ground, the tires may explode
STALL WARNING | The aircraft is about to stall, you should react before it happens
GEAR DOWN LOCKED | Indicates that the gear is down and locked.
GEAR DOWN | Displayed in RED if the airspeed is too high for this gear position.
SEAT BELT | The seat belt sign is on
NO SMOKING | The No Smoking sign is on
LDG LIGHTS | Landing lights are on
STALL | The aircraft is stalling
OVERSPEED | The aircraft is flying too fast

The left mesage area also displays Take-Off and Landing checklists. These lists show a list of items in bright blue if not activated, in green if OK.

| Take-off is automatically detected when your aircraft reaches a high speed on the ground. This checklist can also be displayed by pressing the "TO - CONFIG" button on the "Page Keys" panel, on the pedestal.
| Landing is automatically detected when the aircraft is descending, with 2 notches of flaps or landing gear extracted.

The right message area contains other information, always displayed here at the same place:

- Autopilot disconnection
- Auto-throttle disconnection
- Auto-brake position
- Spoilers position
- Parking brakes

###

System Display

The SD EFIS is located below the E/WD EFIS. Because of the geometry of this panel, this screen is only partially visible. It can display several pages according to the page selected on the "Page Keys" panel, on the pedestal.

| Flight Controls (F/CTL) This page shows the position of all the important flight controls: Left and Right elevators Rudder Elevator trim (up or down) Speed brakes Depending on the aircraft that you're using, the rudder display may be wrong. For more information, read this note.
| Engines (ENG) This page monitors the oil quantity and pressure, and the vibration for the engines. For 4-engine aircrafts, only the oil pressure is displayed (not enough room for the oil quantity...)
| Fuel This page shows the quantity of fuel available in each tank, and the total quantity of fuel available, in KG. If you aircraft does not have auxiliary tanks, "XXXX" is displayed instead of the fuel quantity.
| Electricity (ELEC) All the information about the electric systems are shown here. The grey rectangle displays "LOAD" or "DISCH" to show if the batteries are charging or discharging.
| Brakes (BRK) This page shows the brake pressures on each landing gear, and the ground speed.

###

Autopilot

This panel is equiped with an advanced autopilot. All the modes selected on the autopilot are reported on the PFD (Primary Flight Display).

The autopilot is engaged pressing the AP button. It can not be engaged when the aircraft is on the ground.

#### Speed mode

This mode is activated by pressing the Speed/Mach mode button. When this button is pressed, the Auto-throttle mode is automatically engaged.
Depending on the speed selection mode, it will manage the speed in KNOTS or in MACH. The speed mode currently selected is shown by the "SPD" or "MACH" indication above the speed value display. Speed selection mode can be changed pressing the speed selector button.
When speed mode is engaged, a dot highlights next to the speed value display.

#### Heading / Course mode

Heading and Nav (or Course) modes can be activated using the same buttons.
The heading and course modes can be switched by pressing the Heading/Course selector.
On the real aircraft, this button is used to switch between HDG/VS and TRK/FPA modes. As FS2002 does not provide the TRK (track) and FPA (flight path angle) management, I decided to use this button as switch between heading and course modes.
The mode selected is shown by the "HDG" or "COURSE" indication above the heading or course display.

#### Altitude mode

This mode is activated with the ALT mode button. The interesting feature here is that you can select your target altitude by increasing or decreasing the altitude by increments of 100 or 1000 feet. This is very useful when you want to select your cruise altitude (33000 feet for example), because it is much faster with 1000 feet increments.

When the ALT mode is activated, a dot highlights next to the selected altitude display.
When the aircraft altitude is close to the programmed altitude (within 800 feet), the dot flashes until the target altitude is reached.

When ALT mode is activated, you can select you vertical speed. You can also press the Level Off button so that the aircraft maintains its current altitude.

#### GPS mode

Pressing the GPS button will automatically activate the GPS and the NAV modes. Consequently, the aircraft will follow the route programmed on the GPS, with a single button press.

#### LOC and APPR modes

LOC mode activation will make the aircraft follow the actual localizer. APPR mode will do the same, and will also manage the altitude to follow the glideslope.

#### Example of use

| On this example, the autopilot is engaged, with speed (Mach 0.35), GPS, and altitude (5000 feet) modes engaged. The aircraft is climbing at 2300 feet/minute.

###

Barometric Setting

| This gauge lets you adjust the barometric setting used by the standard altimeter. It can display the setting in inHg or in hPa, depending on the position of the rotating switch. You can also set it to the standard setting (29.92 inHg or 1013.2 hPa) by pressing the rotating button used to adjust the baro setting. STD is then displayed instead of the pressure value. This setting must be used when you are flying using Flight Levels for altitude. This should be done as soon as you fly higher than the transition altitude (usually 18000 feet). If you fly higher than 18000 feet without STD setting, the value display will flash. Conversely, if you fly lower than 18000 feet with STD setting, it will also flash. This is VERY useful to avoid having your flight canceled by ATC because of a bad altitude.

###

Landing Gear and Autobrake

###

| Landing Gear 3 indicators show the status of the landing gears: green triangles indicate gear down and locked red sign show that the gear is unlocked (either retracting or extending) all lights off indicate that the gears are correctly retracted Autobrake Press one of these buttons to activate LO, MED or MAX autobrake. If you activate MAX autobrake on the ground, this will automatically select the RTO mode (Rejected Take Off). This is supposed to brake if you interrupt your takeoff, but I never could make it work in FS2002... When automatic braking is applied, a green indicator "DECEL" highlights on the corresponding button. WARNING: If your aircraft model does not have the auto brake function enabled, this feature will not work. You can easily change that by editing the .air file of the aircraft, with an editor like AirEd. For instance, I had to do that on the A320 from IADG because autobrake was not activated in the model.

###

Standby Instruments

| Airspeed This a very standard airspeed gauge. It shows current airspeed and maximum airspeed.
| Altimeter This standby altimeter shows current aircraft altitude. The interesting part of this gauge is the ability to have a barometric setting different from the standard FS2002 setting. For the first time with FS, you can have several altimeters with several baro settings, so they display different altitudes. This can be very useful: set the baro to the pressure corresponding to the airport altitude, and it will show the altitude above the airport, instead of the altitude above the sea level. This altimeter must be initialized by pressing the RESET button: it is aligned with the standard FS baro setting. Then you can adjust the baro setting using the Baro button (increase/decrease), in inches of Hg or in hPa. Select the mode using the "mode" button.
| Attitude Very standard attitude gauge.

###

Clock

| This gauge displays current local time, and lets you change it by increasing/decreasing the hours. It also controls the time acceleration of FS. Using the rotating switch, you can switch between time and acceleration, and the increase/decrease button lets you change this setting. This gauge also includes a chronometer. Pressing the chrono button, you can start, stop and reset the chronometer.

###

DDRMI

| This gauge provides an additional display of navaid information: the distances from VOR1 and VOR2 (DME1 and DME2), and the direction of navaids. According to the corresponding switch, each needle can show the direction of VOR1, VOR2 or NDB. The gauge also displays current aircraft heading.

###

Light Switches & Signs

These switches are all located on the overhead panel.

| These switches are to be used for the left and right landing lights (can not be used separately). The status of the landing lights is shown on the message area of the E/WD screen.
| The other light switches operate as indicated. Don't forget to switch on the STROBE light before starting your engines.

| These switches are used for the signs in the cabin. Their status is shown in the message area of the E/WD screen. These switches have no impact on the simulation itself. These switches are not realistic in their look, but I think they are nicer than very standard switches.

###

Pedestal

This part of the panel contains gauges and commands that are located on the central pedestal, between the captain and the first officer. All these commands are usable by both pilots.
In this panel, the pedestal can be shown using the "PED" button on the main panel. It can be closed with the same button, or using the close button in the upper right corner of this window.

###

Radio

| This gauge lets you control all the radio frequencies for COM and navaids (NAV1, NAV2, ADF). For the first time with FS, this gauge displays the frequencies with all the digits (3 decimal digits). You can adjust the standby frequency of the selected navaid with the rotating button. The SEL button is used here as an IDENT button. It highlights in green if the selected navaid is in IDENT mode. All the other buttons are fake and ineffective.

###

Transponder (XPNDR)

| This is a standard transponder gauge. You can adjust the ATC code with the 2 rotating buttons. Another switch lets you select the mode OFF: the transponder is OFF STBY: You can adjust the ATC code XPDR: The XPNDR is fully operating and sends the ATC code when requested The ID button is used to send the ATC code the first time, when it has just been entered, to make sure that the controller will identify your aircraft immediately. This feature is pure simulation, because FS handles the ATC code as soon as it is entered.

###

Page Keys

| The buttons on this panel are used to manage the SD (System Display) and E/WD (Engine/Warning Display) screens of the main panel. TO-CONFIG: makes the take-off checklist appear on the E/WD message area if the aircraft is on the ground EMER CANC: acknowldges an alarm, so that the Master Warning light stops flashing, and the alert sound stops ENG: displays the Engine page on the SD ELEC: displays the Electricity page on the SD BRK: displays the Brakes page on the SD F/CTL: displays the Flight Controls page on the SD FUEL: displays the Fuel page on the SD CLR: clears the checklist on the E/WD to display standard messages

#### Lighting

This panel is equiped with an advanced lighting system.
FS provides the standard panel lighting, and this panel also has a backlight which highlight all the gauges of the panel from the back: the Integ Light. It makes them very readable at night, even if the panel light is off. For landing at night, the best configuration is obtained by switching off the panel lights (so that your eyes are used to the reduced light) and switching on the Integ Light to backlight the panel. This provides maximum readability.
The following images show the use of different lighting configurations:

FS standard panel lighting | FS standard panel lights + Integ light | Integ light only

###

Spoilers & Flap commands

| The spoilers are operated in a very standard way, except: Instead of moving the lever to the position you want, you have 4 predefined positions (the first position is 1/2 because below this, FS does not extend the spoilers) To arm the autobrake system (to deploy the spoilers automatically when the aircraft touches the ground), you must move the lever above the RET (retracted) position
| The Flap lever has 5 predefined positions: 0 (retracted), 1, 2, 3, FULL. As the A320 has 6 flap positions (0, 1, 1+F, 2, 3, FULL), you must understand how it works to correctly operate the flaps.

#### Operating the flaps

The flaps should not be extended with an airspeed greater than 230 kts, or you will have a CONFIG warning.
When you extend the flaps to position 1, you will obtain:

- Position 1 (slats only) if you airspeed is greater than 210 kts
- Position 1+F (slats + 1 notch of flaps) if your airspeed is lower than 210 kts

If the flap position is 1+F, they automatically retract when airspeed is greater than 210 kts.
The best flap configuration is:

- 1+F or 2 for take-off
- 3 or FULL for landing

WARNING: This automated behavior will work only if your aircraft has 6 flap positions (0, 1, 1+F, 2, 3 and FULL). This is true for almost all the A320 aircrafts, including the IADG A320 and the Precision-Sim Designs A320. The real aircraft also has 6 flap positions.

### Rudder Trim & Parking Brake

| This is a very standard gauge to adjust the rudder trim. It displays "CTRD" when centered, or the value of the left or right deflection. A reset button is available to automatically center the rudder trim.
| Very standard parking brake command. Clicking the handle will make it turn to apply or release parking brakes.

###

Throttle

For twin-engine aircrafts (A318/319/320/321/330)

| It shows the position of throttle levers for both engines, and the elevator trim positions. The two trim wheels are animated.

For 4-engine aircrafts (A340/380)

###

| It is the same, with 4 throttle levers...

###

Engine Starters

The A320 is equiped with a FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) system which will handle the startup sequence automatically.

| This gauge is composed of 2 levers (A320/330) or 4 levers (A340/380) for the fuel feeding of engines, and a rotating button which selects the engine mode: CRANK: This position is on the real aircraft, but I don't know what it is, so it has no use here NORM: Normal position, when engines are normally running IGN/START: Switch to this position to start the engines using the FADEC system.

#### Engine Start

When engines are OFF, all the levers should be down, meaning that no fuel is provided to the engines.
To start the engines:

1. Move the rotating button to the IGN/START position, engine 1 should start immediately
2. On the E/WD screen, watch the N2 value of engine 1 (you may have to reposition the windows to do this...)
3. When N2 reaches 20%, push the lever for Engine 1, it should start and run normally (if engine 1 does not start at this stage, the FADEC starts engine 2)
4. Now watch N2 for engine 2 on the E/WD screen
5. When N2 reaches 20%, push the Engine 2 lever
6. Proceed the same way for other engines (if you have more than two...)

When the startup sequence is finished, a beep sound is heard and the rotating button automatically returns to the NORM position.

Note: If you want to simlify the startup sequence without having to monitor N2 values, push the 2 fuel feed levers before beginning the automatic startup sequence. The engines will automatically start when N2 reaches 20%.

#### Engine Stop

Simply pull the 2 engine levers for fuel cutoff on both engines.

###

GPS

| A modification of the standard FS2002 GPS gauge, developed by Chuck Dome, for a better look and feel. Thanks to Chuck Dome for his great job !!

###

Flight Management Computer

| This gauge is part of the RealCRT package developed by Tony d'Ambrosio. It allows you to easily plan a flight, and will lead the autopilot to fly the aircraft along its route. For more information about this gauge, please refer to Tony d'Ambrosio documentation of the RealCRT package. Thanks to Tony d'Ambrosio for his great work !!

###

Using this panel with your aircraft

This

panel has been designed with the A320 aircraft from IADG and with the A320 from Precision-Sim Designs. If you want to use this panel with another aircraft (you can use it for any twin-engine Airbus aircraft), you may experience some troubles because some parts of the gauges are related to the aircraft model.

To prevent this, you have the ability to tune the gauges to make them work correctly with your aircraft. This part is tricky, but not very complex. All the details are explained here.

#### Flap positions

The E/WD screen shows the flaps and slats position. The IADG A320 has 6 flaps positions, and the E/WD gauge is designed to work with the flap position values that this arcraft has (FS2002 provides the flap position as a value between 0 and 16384, without any information about the intermediate positions). If your aircraft has only 5 flap positions, or if the flaps values are different, the flap display may look wrong. For example, the A320 from Precision Design has different values for the intermediate flap positions (these values are visible in the "Flaps.0" and "Flaps.1" sections of the "aircraft.cfg" file).

#### Stall Warning

Depending of the flight dynamics of your aircraft, the stall warning message may be displayed when your flight condition is OK. This is because this warning is based on the angle of attack value, which may differ depending on your aircraft.

#### Rudder position

The rudder position shown on the Flight Controls page of the SD screen is also related with the aircraft model. With IADG A320 aircraft, this position varies from -0.4 to 0.4, and the gauge is designed to display this interval of values. If your aircraft has very different values for the rudder position, this display may look wrong.

#### Autobrake

This feature will work only if your aircraft model has the autobrake enabled. The original A320 from IADG does not have it, and I had to change the .air file (using AirEd) to enable autobrake on the aircraft itself. You may have to do the same if this feature does not work with your aircraft.

####