Where is FPAS distance to descent missing on HSI?

[Eldur]

Not a bug per se, but a missing feature at least

 

Quote taken from the NFM, I-2-26, page 98 in pdf. No pics, no link because 1.16.

 

2.3.1.4 HSI with Waypoint or TACAN Steering Selected.

If waypoint or TACAN steering is selected on the HSI display, the fuel remaining at arrival and the miles from the waypoint or TACAN station to begin descent are displayed on the HSI display. When FPAS cannot calculate fuel remaining and the point to begin descent, invalid Xs are displayed for these parameters. If TAS exceeds Mach 0.9, blanks are displayed. If fuel remaining at the waypoint or TACAN station is less than the TO XXXX LB legend, the WYPT number, the TO XXXX LB legend on the FPAS display and the fuel remaining on both the FPAS and HSI displays is flashed.

[Ramsay]

The HSI waypoint/TACAN distance to start your descent was there in the previous Open Beta build.

 

 

Waypoint HSI Info circled in red is

 

• Bearing to / Distance to

• Time to go to

• Fuel Remaining (once reached)

• Distance from waypoint to start descent

 

However rather than showing the distance from the waypoint to start your descent (for a particular altitude), it counted down to zero prior to the descent point i.e. it would read 0 nm @ 32,000 ft when 35 nm from the waypoint.

 

The distance it gave also seemed incorrect - it may have been giving a descent profile for other than 0 ft AGL or perhaps it was (incorrectly ?) using a steeper 'single engine' profile.

 

Throttle idle descent (250KCAS/M0.85) from 30,000ft worked best from ~50 nm but I didn't investigate/test sufficiently to make a bug report, as FPAS looks like WIP.

 

Note: I'm not sure how it's supposed to work IRL (need to reread the manual a bit more) but would have expected the descent distance to depend on weight, altitude and drag index*, so if I overflew an an airfield at 30,000 ft and started to descend (on an outbound leg), I'd know when to turn back to land.

 

* F/A-18 Performance Charts, Page 11-245 (p275 in .pdf), Normal Descent - Distance Required to descend, Fig 11-157, Sheet 4 of 4

Edited November 25, 2018 by Ramsay

[Harker]

That's what these numbers are!

 

Another issue is that they are displayed on the same spot the waypoint name is (if you set up an name in ME) and then you can't read anything, because the two things are on top of each other.

[Eldur]

Actually I was looking at the TCN side, didn't see anything that could be it and so I thought this wasn't in at all.