ILS & Auto Pilot

[Tomcat61]

Ok all, I promise this is the last time I annoy anyone with this same question, however after doing everything I have been told to do, I still am having problems with ILS landings and Approach Switch.

Ok I am flying the FTD 757 at present, I have the correct ILS frequency set, I am around 27 NM out when the ILS Diamonds come up on my screen.
Ok, I try to get it pretty much lined up, so the bottom Diamond is near centre, and the side Diamond is nearly centre as well, so now I hit Approach Switch, and it should take over to perfect touch down am I correct
But it does not,  iether it will keep me straight, but the Alt Hold switch will NOT disengage, and I stay at around 3000 ft and fly right over the runway or the Alt Hold will disengage, but the plane will not keep on centre.

What is happening, very frustrating.
Thanks again...Tomcat61

[FSTipster]

The only thing I can think of is that you're slightly too high and above the glide slope.

Try flying in a little lower, with the diamond above centre. If you're even a foot above the ILS beam, the autopilot can't capture it.

[BFMF]

f you're even a foot above the ILS beam, the autopilot can't capture it.

Didn't realize that

[FSTipster]

Someone else mentioned it in the last episode of a thread of this nature. Hagar possibly? Sorry, I forget.

[Hagar]

Not me Tipster. As a maverick bush pilot I have no use for an A/P or all that stuff. The ILS is a landing aid & I do know that the glide slope must be intercepted from below. I'm not sure FS2002 has an autoland feature? I always considered landing to be the best & most skilful part of the whole flight & all mine are by my own fair hand.  8)

This page posted on the FS2002 Insider site might help.
http://zone.msn.com/flightsim/FS02LessonsFlyingILS.asp

[Mr. Bones]

- make sure you have set the correct frequency of that specific runway!

- look on your gps and enter the ILS beam (green arrow) at about 2000ft, you won't be too high then.

- when you hit your aproach button, make sure your AP is on! and switch the ALT hold off! don't forget: the autopilot never controls your rate of descent or your glideslope! you have to do that yourself by adding or reducing power or by pitching.

- planes in FS are programmed to make zig zag turns when they aren't perfectly lined up with the runway centerline. by making these turn, the AP tries to get the plane lined up. keep that in mind when the plane if turing on final.

hope this helped, if not, feel free to ask again!

[FSTipster]

- when you hit your aproach button, make sure your AP is on! and switch the ALT hold off!

The ALT hold should be left on. When the ILS beam is captured following the APR button being activated, it will turn the ALT Hold off automatically.

the autopilot never controls your rate of descent or your glideslope! you have to do that yourself by adding or reducing power or by pitching.

I remember this discussion coming up before. I'm not trying to take issue with you but if it doesn't work for you, you have a serious problem in your FS2002.

The autopilot controls the rate of ascent/descent and follows the angle of the glideslope quite happily. The only time you (usually) encounter problems with it doing so is if either the flight dynamics of the aircraft itself are poorly tuned, or, when following the ILS glideslope, you have the flap and/or speed settings wrong.

I can assure you that the FS2002 autopilot will perform all the above mentioned functions in relation to ILS glideslope and norml ascent/descent - I did it myself not half an hour ago.

[dj]

Don't forget to turn the NAV/GPS switch to NAV.

[Mr. Bones]

FStipster, i'm quit sure about what i said before. but to make things clear...

if you enter your ILS beam at lets say 2000ft and you put your ALT on (while APR is on) and set it at lets say 0ft with a vertical speed of lets say -500fpm, then your AP will control your descent, otherwise it doesn't!

the ILS and AP systems in FS show you the perfect glideslope (pink arrow in your HSI), but you have to follow it yourself...

[FSTipster]

FStipster, i'm quit sure about what i said before. but to make things clear...

if you enter your ILS beam at lets say 2000ft and you put your ALT on (while APR is on) and set it at lets say 0ft with a vertical speed of lets say -500fpm, then your AP will control your descent, otherwise it doesn't!

the ILS and AP systems in FS show you the perfect glideslope (pink arrow in your HSI), but you have to follow it yourself...

The Alt key should be on before you engage the APR button.

[RollerBall]

Sorry Ken, tipster's right.

I think the mistake people are making is they think they can just suddenly switch on APR to get the ILS to work.

Sorry, not like that. You can't be flying manually and then just switch APR. You have to be flying on HDG and ALT (probably 2000-2500 ft say) on autopilot with NAV/GPS switched to NAV, ideally be on a relative heading of 30 deg to the localiser beam and you MUST be below the glideslope (that's why you're some way under 3000 ft and something like 15 miles out DME).

Now the bar in

[Brett_Henderson]

There's NO automatic landing in FS2002 despite what some people will try to tell you.

That's right (to a point)...

You have to deploy the flaps, manage the airspeed and drop the gear,, but,,

[RollerBall]

you may land a "little" hard

OK so long as you're flying something with almost unbreakable gear!

I haven't gone out of my way to try, but I don't think you'd get away with it with eg any of the POSKY models - which try to be as realistic as it's possible to be

Roger

[fisharno]

There is allot to manage to make a good landing.

Manually following and holding the ILS all the way to the ground is one of the more challanging scenarios in FS. Doing it well in different conditions every time, hones your concentration and disipline.