Fenix Simulations, developer of the popular Airbus A319 and A320 addons for Microsoft Flight Simulator, has released two updates for their A32X series, including new engines for the A321.
The most important change found in the update surrounds the choice of engines modeled on the recently released Airbus A321 product line. Initially, Fenix modeled the CFM56-5B2 engines. However, as a result of customer feedback, they have now replaced the CFM engine variant with the more common CFM56-5B3. The biggest difference is an extra 2,000 lbs (10KN) of thrust per engine, making it the most powerful engine fitted to any member of the A32X CEO family.
While the A321’s new engines were the highlight of the update, additional changes to the Fenix fleet include:
Avionics and Systems
- Added an lvar for whether jet pumps are installed
- Switched loadsheets from using the SimBrief planned aircraft registration to the actual aircraft registration
- Fixed CF track intercept bug
- Fixed MCDU THR RED/ACC values not being rounded correctly
- Fixed certain characters breaking the formatting on the DCDU
EFB
- Added persistence of chart zoom levels and positions (just within the current session)
- Added CFM56-5B3 takeoff performance data
- Added ability to switch between CDU1 and CDU2 in the Web MCDU
- Added highlights to mass and balance fields when they will exceed MZFW and MTOW
- Improved readability of pop-up dialogs in dark environments
- Made error messages less ambiguous (less “server error”)
- Fixed differences between system- and EFB-reported green dot speed
- Fixed map and charts using magnetic heading
- Fixed incorrect landing wind component in regions with high magnetic variation
- Fixed flights showing as diverted after a turnaround
- Fixed callsign being padded to four digits rather than three
- Fixed malformed UI on planned numbers dialog when cargo input is clicked
- Fixed EFB charging when PILOT OUTLET CB is popped
Flight and Engine Models
- Replaced CFM56-5B2 with CFM56-5B3 engines on the A321
- Attempted an autorotation fix
Following the update, Fenix released a hotfix later that day that fixed contact points causing the A321 nose wheel to appear sunk into the ground, and a preventative fix to prevent low thrust output from the B3 engines in certain conditions.
