OnCourse Software

Okay, firstly, as already mentioned your last way point was really quite close to the airport at 26 miles, especially as you have your FAF distance set to 12, so in fact you gave yourself just 14 miles for the approach to work its magic.

We have two things here... one is your flight profile, which PF3 calculates as soon as you load a flight plan and perhaps that could be adjusted slightly, although I'm somewhat nervous about doing so. We are trying to cater for all types of user here and quite honestly I'd rather get the user down earlier than later. So, what else can be done. Well you obviously have the final say as to your flight profile and if you go into the 'Adjust Altitudes' display once you've loaded your flight plan you are free to adjust it to your hearts content. I personally think that is the best and safest way. In the next release there is a new option to have the altitude adjustments page display automatically (if you wish) immediately after loading a flight plan.

Secondly, PF3 does calculate your TOD and does so using distance to your destination airport, rate or descent and your current ground speed. It is recalculated periodically so as to be as accurate as possible. Looking at the log files the last calculation is showing 122 miles, which was about spot on considering the factoring used in the calculation. Obviously this TOD was not used because your descent started earlier due to the profile in your flight plan.

Hope that helps

Ah, right, I forgot that the waypoint altitudes have preference to TOD calculation.

My apologies, I meant 3500fpm for decent. I use 4000fpm for climb, otherwise I PF3 will wait until I reach my initial altitude to give me further climb instructions.