Fsbuild-2 Flight Planner

Actually, two, refering to the Smithy's FMS

1.) If VNav gets turned off in flight (I've only tried this during cruise), then turned back on, it automatically goes into decent mode. Also, it ignores all crossing restrictions and decends all the way to the destination airport's altitude. I replicated this on a "test" flight and just let the plane go, and it literally flew itself right into the ground, it didn't seem to care/notice that the plane was a few hundred miles from it's destination airport, it just went down to that altitude. Is there anything that can be done about this? Is there a way to turn VNav off, then back on again safely/successfully? Am I missing something?

2.) Crossing restrictions: It is my understanding that when entering a crossing restriction into a Boeing/Smith's style FMS that if you simply enter the altitude (ex: 8000) that the FMS will take that as exactly what you entered (i.e. 8000). If you enter "8000A" then the FMS will take that as "8000 or above." If you enter "8000B" the FMS will take that as "8000 or below." With the ISG FMS no matter how you enter 8000 it shows up as "8000A" and always hits the waypoint about 400-700 above the desired altitude. Pressing A, B or nothing at all following the altitude has no effect on the FMS, it always displays "8000A".

So my question is this: When the ISG diplays the crossing restriction as "8000A" is it saying "8000 or above" or does it mean "exactly 8000" and it's just not very accurate? Also, is there a way to tell the ISG FMS that the restriction is for a) at or above b) at or below or c) the exact altitude entered? This could be helpful on certain departures/arrivals that have such restrictions, since as I said, the FMS tends to fly the plane a few hundred feet above the set restrictions...thus "busting" an "at or below" restriction.

Don't get me wrong here...the ISG FMS package is hands down the best $30-something dollars I've spent on flight sim add-ons!

Thanks in advance.

_________________
...for serious, dude.

Here's my 1.5 cents worth, Robert.

The 'A' stands for (or might as well stand for) 'altered', from what the FMS came up as a default altitude. So if you make any changes to the altitude originally created by the FMS, it'll have an 'A' appended to the altitude in the right column.

Note also that you can type "F220'' and the FMS knows to put in FL220 (i.e., you don't have to enter the 'L' for flight levels).

I believe Ernie intends to address the VNAV function of the Smith's FMS in the next release, to allow for more crossing restrictions (at least I hope so ).

_________________
...for serious, dude.

Ernie,

Thanks very much for the reply. I forgot to mention that I tried the +\- keys as well. Anyhow, I guess it was just wishful thinking that I could have "at or..." restrictions. It's not a big deal though. Also, I'm fully aware of how speed can affect the decent rate (-2000fpm @ 60kts is more steep than -2000fpm @ 600kts). Here's the problem, If I turn off VNav and adjust the decent rate manually, using the Boeing style ND as a guide (i.e. the "semi-circle decent marker thing" ) I can get to the desired waypoint a little before, thus being sure that I've made it at or below...BUT the problem is I can't get VNav to turn back on successfully.

NOTE: I flew last night after writing my first posts, and I couldn't get this to happen every time. I tried a few time during cruise and it only happened to me once. Then I tried once during decent on a STAR and it happened. Also, when I trned VNav on and off, I didn't delay; once it was off, I turned it right back on again, and [sometimes] it went right to destination altitude.

I bought the FMS pack about a month ago, so I'm not sure which version I have, but in the ISG folder within FSX I have "readmes" for patch_1, patch_2, and Upgrade_1_4. So I'm assuming I have 1.4.

Anyway, thanks very, very much for the help, and I'll be sending you my info.

_________________
...for serious, dude.

_________________
...for serious, dude.