by Brett_Henderson » Thu May 01, 2008 6:27 am
In a real airplane, the only limitations are on what type of equipment you're willing to purchase, and how much wiring you're willing to have done, behind the panel.
Whether or not a standard NAV radio can track an ILS, has nothing to do with the radio; be it NAV1 or NAV2... it depends on what type of VOR indicator it's using. All, standard NAV radios can recieve ILS signals... and you can even use a non-ILS indicator to track just the localizer.
When you've dialed in an ILS, the OBS knob becomes useless (though it's good practice to turn it to runway heading for reference), even with a non-ILS indicator.
I've flown many a rental C712 that had two ILS capable indicators.. so you could use either NAV1 or NAV2 for an ILS approach. That's more about redundancy, and having a backup ILS indicator available, than it's about being able to use either. I mean (as mentioned), you would never be tracking two ILSs.. Though in theory, you could be landing at an airport that has two ILS equipped runways, and because of shifting winds you might want to have both ready. But with a flip-flop radio, that's overkill.
Now, as far as autopilots go.. it again depends on the equipment. Most autopilots have their navigation tracking, slaved to the primary (NAV1) VOR indicator (which is also the indicator slaved to the GPS). Some autopilots allow you to choose between VOR indicators, but it's uncommon in smaller aircraft.,, and again about redundancy, as an autopilot can't track two courses at ther same time.. lol
MSFS autopilots are only slaved to VOR1. And (aside from a few third-party gauges), VOR1 indicators are the only ones that are ILS capable. I seem to remember a Rockwell Commander that had a wonderful VOR2 indicator that was ILS capable. It worked wonderfully for tracking ILSs, but the autopilot was still only slaved to VOR1.