Thales vs Honeywell FMGS

[tubby linton]

I have recently returned to flying A320F and was surprised to find that the majority of our fleet are now equipped with Thales FMGS. For those of you that have flown both I would be interested to hear your thoughts on each system.
From some initial exposure to the Thales it appears to have introduced numerous annoying steps into simple actions such as asking for a direct to. From many years experience I have found that anything that has been designed by Smiths (Thales)is generally badly designed.

[A-3TWENTY]

I`ve flown both on the A330 , and can tell you Thales is really crappy in all aspects.

1. Speed control is awful .Let the aircraft go beyond the speed selected sometimes 20 Kts.The same in managed. It goes beyond bracket limits arouns 15 kts.
It`s really easy to overspeed if you don`t keep a good margin to VMO/MMO.Barely ever fly beyond 300 kts/M 0.82 even in smoth air just we find some turbulence.

2. The descend management is again awful. Sometimes starts reducing the speed to 250 kts at FL 160 , despite the Speed Limit is set 10000ft.
Sometimes but less often you have to select the speed because it does not reduce to 250/10000ft.

Descent Planning.? Mine is a lot better. Sometimes we are low , the yoyo, stuck upscale and it starts plummeting down. Otherwise also happens.

It`s really hard to believe Airbus/ Authorities approved such a crappy system in a nowadays aircraft.

[tubby linton]

i am not surprised at your account of the usability of the Thales.I have experienced their early attempts at an FMS and also their engine instruments and I have been under impressed with both. I have started using their FMGC and thought it confusing and less than intuitive..

[tubby linton]

Does anybody have a sheet of the differences between the two boxes?

[C_Star]

Please forgive a stupid question, but how do I check which box is installed on my a/c? :}

[Easy226]

In our FCOM its under DSC-22-20-50-10 MCDU Page Description - Honeywell (in our case). Visually I think the difference between the Thales MCDU and Honeywell MCDU is that on the Thales the screen brightness buttons are seperated by each other by a very small gap. On the Honeywell the screen brightness control (BRT/DIM) is one button.

[Superpilot]

Is there a difference in behaviour if you have a retrofit or factory fitted Thales FMGS?

[C_Star]

Thx Easy226

My FCOM says we have "legacy", or Honeywell box, depending on the MSN. Does "legacy"=Thales?

[Easy226]

I believe its Honeywell Legacy or Honeywell Pagasus setup (FMS 1) and then with FMS 2 you can either have FMS 2 Honeywell or FMS 2 Thales.

[C_Star]

That clears it completely! :ok: