757 ILS FIASCO SAGA CONT. (PICS)

[Guest]

Good evening fellow FLY!II PMDG simmers,Let's start out on a postive note today!I startmed my flight in the 757 from KSEA to KORD. Departure (KSEA 16L) and enroute phase (FL330), and initial decent went predictibly smoothly. UNTIL....... Final decent and approach. (C4TO vectors and altitude assignments were GOOD!)We started our final approach into KORD 04R ILS.. I had been vectored (Heading 070) to interecpet and cleared for the approach at 3000'. ILS 04R freq. 110.1 tuned into the CENTER PEDISTAL ILS reciver. Initially the backcourse showed, I waited until the front course and the appropriate course of 044 came in on the ILS reciever course knob. Next, I verified the appropriate freq. and course on the FMC via. init. ref page. Frequency was accurate 110.1, however the course in the FMC was 043 and NOT 044 as shown on the Center pedistal ILS reciever. NO ILS LOCALIZER OR GLIDESLOPE info is on the top pilot display.. NO ILS or distance info and bottom display. The appropriate frequency of 110.1 was tuned into the CENTER PEDISTAL ILS with course of 044 for 04R (KORD) with an FMC (IDIT and ref page) frequency 110.1 and FINAL COURSE 043!!No ILS distance or guidance given! :-madI've had this happen several times at several different airports.** Please not the FMC error message on the final pics. After the first approach attempt, I executed the missed approach procedure. I was approprately vectored for an intercept course for the same approach. SAME RESULTS. Next, one of my passengers had a heart attack and I had to get the bird down immediately. I was cleared for a circle to land approach with a 500' ceiling. quite difficult. As you will notice with the pictures, a Runway overrun ALMOST occured!!! :-eek Everybody was happy to get off my plane. I hope I still have a JOB with DELTA tomorrow... Any head would be appreciated. My instint tells me it is a problem with the FMC or 757 ILS system matching appropriate frequency and course bearings from the FLY!II database. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have had this happened several times.Yours Truly,Davea.k.a CB

[Guest tonyc]

You have to make sure that the destination airport in the fmc is activated. If not, the ils will not work. Don't forget to turn the knob to ILS. You may want to read about it in the manual.tony

[Guest]

Tony,FMC had KORD as final destination with the 04RILS approach programmed as well. The knob was turned to ILS however, i didn't take a screen shot of it.CB

[Guest tonyc]

I'll give it a try and let you know. I know that the only time I had that happen is when I had failed to enter the destination airport. Stay tuned.tony

[Guest]

I will stay tuned. I just completed a short flight from KSEA to KPDX.. ILS 10L into PDX.. FMC data and 10LILS enterended into FMC. THIS time the ILS distance and guidance did come up. Go figure. here's the pix. I did have wind SET at zero, because there appears to be a problem with the autopilot and x-winds.CB

[Jet Tech 31]

Dave,I was just about to post some pics to show what the ILS should display on the EADI but now you know!Just shot a CatIII into MSP 30L and landed on the numbers, go figure.Gotta be some kind of database issue.RegardsPaul :-cool

[Guest]

Paul,Yes, I think your right. It's increadibly frustating to complete a long flight from LAX to ATL and then have it all go to DOO DOO because the ILS guidance won't work.. Maybe we should try NDB approaches in the case where the ILS doesn't work... :) lolCB

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

CB-I'm trying to duplicate your descripted event to see if I can duplicate it....At the moment- I haven't been able to...Robert S. RandazzoPrecision Manuals Development Group http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/coolcap.gifwww.precisionmanuals.com

[Guest Henri W]

Hi Robert,Your B757 is indeed a magnificent piece of work. It is so much fun to prepare a complete flight and get the FMC set up. Yesterday I made my first SID (INKET for EHRD). It worked like a charm.The flight I planned was going from EHRD to EDDF. LNAV including the EHRD SID and EDDF STAR worked as expected, but I did have some problems with the vertical navigation, though. The issues I describe might be related, so I give the full story.After loading the FSBuild generated flight plan for EHRD-EDDF I entered the altitude and speed restrictions for the waypoints. All entries were acknowledged and the data properly showed up in the LEGS screen. Next I loaded the SID. Again the altitude data for the fixes were properly shown in the LEGS screen. However, when I tried to arm the VNAV mode, I got a message saying that this was not possible. I checked again and again the altitude data of the flight plan, even reloaded everything, but this message kept coming every time I pressed the VNAV button. As a result I had to do the vertical speed management manually during the take-off. No big deal, but it would have been nice to see the VNAV working properly, as I have seen it in previous flights.The flight itself was uneventful. During the final part of the flights I removed two fixes from the STAR using the FMC. The new route was properly flown using LNAV after making one manual course intercept. I had declared runway 25L as my destination runway (STAR according to this runway) and selected the frequency for this ILS (110.7) using the center pedestal. I used the MCP to descend to 3000 feet. Once I was ready to intercept the localizer (still at about 15 miles from 25L) I pressed the APP button on the MCP and switched the ND from map mode to ILS mode. Three AP's were properly activated. Much to my surprise I saw that I was way above the GS, whereas the localizer properly showed I was intercepting the lateral guidance signal. I checked the altimeter setting, my distance to the runway and altitude; this showed me that I definitely should be below the GS. Since I was wondering what would happen I let the AP continue the flight. At the expected point the plane started its descent and continued to follow the proper glide path (LAND3 enabled). However, the PFD displays for GS never became alive; they kept showing me that I was above GS. This can be seen in the attached pictures. The LOC indicator did work properly. One remark about lateral navigation. Due to a slight (7 mph) 40 degrees cross wind the AP ended up putting the plane slightly to the right of the runway. I had to do the final lateral adjustment manually. I hope this story helps to solve some mysteries. I did read the applicable sections of the manual, but it is certainly possible that I missed some vital information.Thanks again for you wonderful plane.Best regards,Henri

[Guest Henri W]

Hi again,I just wanted to let you know that I tried another flight where I entered EHRD as departure and arrival airport in the FMC. Again I used the INKET SID from runway 24. This time everything worked as it should, including VNAV. After take-off the plane flew the complete course by itself, nicely leveling of at 3000 feet as instructed. Also during approach the GS did work this time. I wondered what was wrong during the previous flight. Could it be related to FSBuild? CheersHenri

[Guest Henri W]

Regarding the possibility that the problems were related to FSBuid generated flight plans, I just made a wonderful flight using a FSBuild plan from EHRD to EDDS. Everything, including LNAV, VNAV, SID worked as it should. Incredible! PMDG, thanks again. What goes wrong in some cases, I have no idea. Best regards,Henri