HITS box colors

[Harold Roberts]

When I transfer a flight plan from Foreflight to the AF-5500, the HITS boxes on the first leg I fly shows in a color and brightness that is easy to see. Once I'm on the second leg, the color of the HITS boxes is dim and nearly impossible to see. The only way I can get them to be visible is to select "Fly this Leg" on Foreflight and transfer the plan from Foreflight to the EFIS again. Then the color changes to the visible color from the first leg. How can I get the HITS boxes to be visible on multiple leg flight plans?

Another question on HITS: How can I set a flight plan so that the HITS boxes go from one altitude to another? Descending or ascending?

[Jonathon]

HITS boxes for the active flight plan leg are pink, and HITS boxes for nonactive legs on the flight plan are purple. If you are seeing the darker HITS boxes on subsequent flight plan legs it is because you are not actively flying on that leg as far as the EFIS sees it.

As for climbs/descents, the HITS boxes will follow the altitude bug, but they do not compute a sloped climb or glide path for you to follow. The only time the HITS boxes will show a glidepath is for the destination airport when you select a runway and glidepath for landing.

[Harold Roberts]

HITS boxes for the active flight plan leg are pink, and HITS boxes for nonactive legs on the flight plan are purple. If you are seeing the darker HITS boxes on subsequent flight plan legs it is because you are not actively flying on that leg as far as the EFIS sees it.

As for climbs/descents, the HITS boxes will follow the altitude bug, but they do not compute a sloped climb or glide path for you to follow. The only time the HITS boxes will show a glidepath is for the destination airport when you select a runway and glidepath for landing.

Jonathon, thanks for the quick reply.

I suspected the reason for the purple boxes was that the EFIS doesn't believe I'm flying that leg. But I AM flying the leg, right through the purple boxes. When I approach a transition from one leg to another, there is a number that 'floats' in the sky which I assume are the GPS coordinates for the transition point. Whatever the number is, as I pass the intersection, I would expect the 'invisible' purple next leg to change to the 'visible' pink current leg, but it does not.

If the EFIS doesn't use my location in space to determine which leg I am flying, what does it use? How can I get it to recognize I'm flying the leg?

I have the workaround I described above, but it is a major distraction to have to manually select a leg that I'm flying on my Foreflight on iPad and then transfer the flight plan (yet again) to the EFIS to get the current leg to turn pink.

Hal

[Jonathon]

Hal, that is the expectation for sure. Not sure why it isn't activating the next leg as you fly through the waypoint.

We'd like to see what you're seeing here, so if it's not too much trouble, could you get a short video of you flying through a waypoint with a multi-waypoint flight plan loaded and activated? Make sure both the PFD and map windows are showing on the EFIS, email to the support inbox and I'll review it, thanks.

[Harold Roberts]

Jonathon,

My videographer did a less than stellar job videoing the behavior, but now that I've examined it more, I can give you a better verbal description.

From the Foreflight flight plan attached, I followed the magenta line and the magenta HITS boxes on the EFIS. Once I arrived at Lake Manatee I deviated from the flight plan and landed on the lake and took off at a random spot. I rejoined the flight plan on the second leg heading northwest. The EFIS did not recognize i was on the second leg and the boxes remained purple and hard to see. The map view on the EFIS showed i was following a segmented line. I assume the segmented line indicates the next line to fly but not the current leg. Foreflight, however, recognized I was on the second leg. I resent the flight plan to the EFIS from Foreflight and then my boxes turned pink and the leg turned solid. As long as I stayed on the flight path, the EFIS correctly recognized my traversing of the waypoints. The problem seems to be that if you go off the first leg and come back to a second leg without passing through the intersection between legs the EFIS won't recognize you are on the next leg. This does not seem like the best behavior. The EFIS should accept that you deviated and if you are on the second or third leg it should recognize that and start operating to make the leg you are on the ACTIVE leg. I had the passenger video all this but he said it didn't turn out. He got one video but I haven't seen if it is useful. If it is, I will upload it.

[Harold Roberts]

Jonathon, I've sent three videos to the support email on this topic. Please review.

Hal