Can the autopilot get u lined up with the runway?

[Tanner8]

Hey, Im wondering if the autopilot can land you or if it can get you perfectly lined up with the runway. If so how?? Im not that shure what the aproach hold switch does or the backcourse switch does. This is in a boing 737 (looked at my old fs book but still dont really get it)
(by the way thanks alot on the last thread about the nav switch got that working like a charm now )

Thanks alot guys

[beefhole]

Could someone give him a link to an ILS post...

[Moach]

yes, the approach hold will align your plane for landing if the runway has an ILS and you are tuned to it

step by step

fly to the airport you want to land on (not too hard so far, ey?)

tune the Nav1 radio to the runways ILS freqency (use gps or map to find out the frequecies of each runway)

turn on approach hold and set NAV/GPS switch to nav
if you're using autopilot you can fly on heading hold from here

DO NOT approach the airport head on, point it towards a little further from the end of that green arrow that sticks out of the runway on the GPS/map (if you can't see it, zoom in) this will give you about 5 miles of distance from the runway, remeber a BIG plane requires even more distance - this arrow only appear on runways with ILS


it's kinda hard to understand, so i made a little sketch:






the ILS consists of two indicators, a horizontal one, called the LOCALIZER and a vertical one, called GLIDESLOPE,

when the plane intersects with the localizer,  approach hold will override heading hold and aling you to the runway, then you'll fly level untill you intersect the glideslope when approach hol will override the altitude hold and start descending along the slope

you can't intercept the localizer in an angle any higher than 90 degrees from runway heading, this means you need to be heading somewhat towards the airport never away from it

it's important that you approach the glideslope from below, the plane will not start descending if you dont meet up with it, usually you intercept the glideslope at about 1200ft  above ground level

as you approach the airport you should already be in landing configuration (gears, flaps down) and in a proper approach speed

approach hold will NOT flare and touch down for you, so you must disengage autopilot and autothrottle when you're close enough to land manually

flare off and touch down

*you may not get this right on the first attempt, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes quite simple

also: when you're landing IFR, the ATC will lead you through this exact pattern, but you must tune the ILS frequency yourself (unlike comm radio)


BACKCOURSE HOLD is for approaching a runway that only has an ILS on the opposite side you're landing, the difference is that it doesn't provide a glideslope, only a localizer;)


hope it helps

c ya
Moach

[Midnight_LS1]

Here's simple ways:

1. Open GPS:
Program the waypoint to the landing airport of choice
press process button and select runway you would like to land on, press enter, and enter again.

2. Line up the aircraft to the airport runway direction of landing

3. Flip on the FD (Flight Director) switch

4. Press AP, and APPR button (this will line up the aircraft to the runway, the AP will take over alieron control) you're left with elevator, rudder and throttle.

5. YOU maintain airspeed, flaps, landing gear and altitude until touchdown.

6. Maintain yaw to center line of the FD and the elevator to the FD (pink cross)

7. Turn AP off after you touchdown, otherwise it will driff off to the side of the runway if your going to miss touchdown.

8. Deploy spoilers, reverse thrust and brakes  ;)

[Gary R.]

Missed one important detail on flying an ILS.  Don't forget to line up your CRS with the ILS runway heading. Neither approach nor NAv will get you there if you don't have the correct radial set. I always use NAV hold When the vis is bad and manually control my decent using throttle and minor elevator trim adjustments. If your flaps are on the numbers for approach you can control your altitude primarily with throttle changes but it varies on many planes. Heck, the F1 DC-9 goes down the glideslope altogether at idle. At least from 10 miles out it does.

[flightman]

Just figuring ils out myself and i'm halfway there. The CRS selector, do you set that before you take of or when you are given your runway for landing. Also if you are assigned for example 27l do put in 270 degrees or 027 degrees. I seem to intercepting the glidescope but coming into early landing before the runway.

[Travis]

27L is refferring to the runway number.  Runway numbers are in multiples of tens.  That is, 09 is heading 90, or east.  27 is 270, or west.  But that doesn't really tell you the ILS heading, because they are rounded off to the nearest ten.  Sometimes you'll have a runway with heading 257 and they round it off to 260, for runway 26.

The easiest way to check the runway heading is to go into the map and click on the airport you are headed to.  If no ILS heading is specified, there is no ILS on that runway.

To do it the way real pilots do, you'll need approach plates.  There are several sites that provide them, but most cost money.  Although there is THIS ONE.  It doesn't have EVERY airport, but it does seem to have many.  Just look around on it for awhile and see.

[flightman]

So when i get the ils frequency should i note down the runway heading which given then when given approach details by ATC set the course then. Once you have the ils beam do you then hit the approach button?
By the way as a newbie to this thanks for all your help. Must say it's cost me a few quid in upgrades but it's worth it ans i have got so much more out of FS9 after joining this Forum.

[Gary R.]

Well, you should set your CRS at least more than 10 miles outbound if you want to be where you need to be for finals.

[flightman]

Thanks for the advice. Will give it a go.

[Tanner8]

Thanks alot guys! you have been very helpfull

[beefhole]

Has anyone else noticed that at least on the default planes it doesn't really matter what course is set to?  I found out that it didn't make a difference on the default planes so now I set my course to the wind direction and I still get the same exact perofrmance. I mean, I'd still recommend to people to set course to runway heading, but I don't like doing it because in order to get the exact runway heading you have to go into map view and interrupt the flight  :( Of course you can approximate according to the runway number, but I don't think that really counts

[Travis]

What I usually do is actually plan my flights.  I know many people don't do this: that's part of the great thing about the sim.  You can just takeoff from any airport and doodle around in the skies, flipping, turning and running 20 ft inverted  ;) down the runways, and ATC does not give a flying--!

But in planning my flights, I usually decide whether or not I'm flying VFR or IFR, then find the frequencies of the ILS runways and write them down.  I then enter the frequency into my VOR2 and leave it there till I need it.  That way, I never have to look away from the screen to set up ILS.  I just set it to the same freq as the VOR2 station and I'm all ready to go.

[beefhole]

Yea, but getting the ILS freqs can be gotten through the GPS module.  Getting the actual ILS headings can't be done through the GPS module.