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NXi and airways

Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 9:55 pm
by Boatguy
A couple of weeks ago I was flying back from Southern California and a controller nicely called me up to revise my clearance and cut a few miles off my trip. The original cleared route was similar to one I had yesterday which is attached (the ATC computer must have been in a very retro mood with so many airways). Specifically I was between PRB and PXN VORs, cleared to join V301 at PXN and he revised my clearance to join V301 at BORED, cutting the corner past PXN.

But I had no idea where BORED was. I tried to expand the airway, but the Expand Airways menu item was grayed out. I requested a vector while I searched for the waypoint on the chart in Foreflight which I found and entered. I originally thought this was my mistake in not knowing how to manage the flight plan in the G1000NXi, but upon further investigation and a second flight, I think there is something odd about our version of NXi (2948.11 and GDU 20.8 ).

If you look at the screen shot, you can see that none of these airways is shown as "Collapsed" and as a result they cannot be Expanded to show the interim waypoints. The flight plan shows only the entry and exit waypoints. This is very different from a G1000 which shows every waypoint and does not include the option to collapse an airway.

It's also different than the Garmin NXi simulator which collapses and expands the airways.

I could possibly have used the "Nearest" function to find BORED, but since it was about 90nm away I don't think it would have made the Nearest list.

So what's going on? Is this an NXi bug or "feature"?
IMG_3995A.JPG

Re: NXi and airways

Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2021 9:59 pm
by neema
That seems strange indeed. What happened when you tried to collapse/expand airways? Or was it even an option?

Re: NXi and airways

Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:38 pm
by Boatguy
The Expand Airways menu item was grayed out - not available.

Re: NXi and airways

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2021 5:59 pm
by neema
Strange. Even when trying the FMS cursor on all possible waypoints?

That would be a curveball for me in flight. ATC tipped you off on BORED being part of v301, so you could have manually rolled it in. If they were busy and said something like "direct BORED, rest of route unchanged" I wouldn't know where to start.

May be a bug indeed

Re: NXi and airways

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2021 7:23 pm
by Boatguy
Screen Shot 2021-01-19 at 11.16.05 AM.png
I tried putting the cursor on the airway, but that made no difference. The manual explains the menu item as expanding or collapsing airways and implies it will expand or collapse all airways, though the graphic in the manual shows only one as "collapsed". It also shows that when they are collapsed, that is indicated. As you can see in my photo of the panel, none were indicating "collapsed". Since they weren't collapsed, they can't be expanded.

ATC at first just told me "cleared BORED". Then when I asked for clarification they told me it was in V301. I found it in Foreflight and entered it manually then DirectTo. Then I removed V301 and added it back with BORED as the entry point, DirectTo BORED and removed the manually entered waypoint. A lot of button pushing when I should have been able to just expand the airway, select BORED and DirectTo, without the need to add or remove anything from he flight plan.

Waiting for a reply from Garmin.

Re: NXi and airways

Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2021 11:03 pm
by waynemcc999
Russ, I've also gotten this BORED clearance update when going that direction. And as you note, on the non-NXi G1000 the airway does show up expanded, and I just selected BORED and then Direct. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever had success with the inverse issue, i.e. "collapsing airways" on my G1000. Hmmm.
Wayne

Re: NXi and airways

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2021 5:20 am
by Boatguy
waynemcc999 wrote: Tue Jan 19, 2021 11:03 pm Russ, I've also gotten this BORED clearance update when going that direction. And as you note, on the non-NXi G1000 the airway does show up expanded, and I just selected BORED and then Direct. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever had success with the inverse issue, i.e. "collapsing airways" on my G1000. Hmmm.
Wayne
My Redbird TD which emulates a G1000 does not have the Collapse or Expand menu items. It may be a "feature" of NXi.

Re: NXi and airways

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2021 6:12 pm
by waynemcc999
Russ,
The images below of Collapse-Airways are from X-Plane 11, but are the same as on my DA40 G1000 (non-NXi).
Wayne

Expanded:
timelapse15.png
Collapsed:
timelapse16.png

Re: NXi and airways

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2021 3:10 pm
by MackAttack
Collapsing and expanding airways is available on the G3000 (and presumably, the 750s and 650s). Works great and I have done just what you tried to do on the G3000 several times. Have not tried this specific airway or fix however.

Re: NXi and airways

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2021 8:33 pm
by Boatguy
waynemcc999 wrote: Wed Jan 20, 2021 6:12 pm The images below of Collapse-Airways are from X-Plane 11, but are the same as on my DA40 G1000 (non-NXi).
Wayne
Well that shows what a poor emulation of the G1000 is provided by the Redbird TD. More on that in another thread when I get time.