Approach Hold and Backcourse Switches

[Guest]

What on earth are they for? I can't find anything on them, and I would like to know what they do. Thanks.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Simply put, they allow the autopilot to follow the ils. APR hold allows for tracking the localizer and glideslope, which on most ILS's will guide your A/C in on a heading aligned with the runway, on approx. a 3 degree glideslope. Backcourse hold allows for coming in on the end of the runway opposite the ILS--and will track the heading only. That's a very simple way of explaining it...I'm sure some others with IFR experience will add to it.-John

[Guest]

>What on earth are they for? I can't find anything on them, >and I would like to know what they do. Thanks. They're for wimps!!! (just kidding!)Seriously, they're for allowing you to capture the ILS via the autopilot How do you use them? Well....Tune your NAV1 radio to the frequency for the ILS attached to the runway which you're approaching. Make sure that you are going at a reasonable approach speed, are below the glideslope and have somewhere around 20 degrees of intercept on the ILS. Hit the APP button and the aircraft will make the turn. If you carry too much speed, you'll wind up doind S turns the entire way in to the runway and will just go blasting through the glideslope.The back course is for those runways where the ILS is on the opposite end of where you're gonna land. Same theory.Both are very, very handy when the weather is garbage and you've got a lot going on in the cockpit. The airplane will find the runway for you. Just keep in mind that unless your aircraft is equipped with an autoland feature that you'll still need to put Otto back to sleep (hit Z) and hand fly your bird the last few hundred feet to the ground.

[Guest]

alright, thanks for all your help, this will help a lot when the weather is bad or there is very low visibility, i used to manually land using the gps zoomed in to about 2 miles, but this makes things a whole lots easier, thanks a lot

[Guest Joshieca]

Does FS2k2 auto tune the NAV radios or do you have set those manually?[br][br][div align=center][br][link:members.cox.net/fstimes/wetimage.html]Weather Image of the Day!

[Guest GabrielR]

YOu have to do it manually, only the Comm can be tunned via the Auto tune feature. Usually, when I'm flying long cross country flights, I fly with the gps navigation engaged, when I receive clearance to descend, I turn the AP to HDG, and VERY IMPORTANT, set the AP to NAV, then As long as I'm descending I tune the NAV radios to the ILS frequency, set the course to the ILS Heading, set the autobrake and Arm the spoilers, until when I'm about to intercept the Glide slope in the conditions described above, when I engage the APP in the AP. When I'm aligned with the runway descending, I set the go around HDG and ALtitud, should I need it in case of an emergency. About 1000 ft AGL, when I'm in full landing configuration, I shut down the Auto throttle and the AP, spoil the engines (takes paractice to do it correctly) and fly the rest manually until touch down.I'm not a pilot, I just developed this method to make things easier and smoother, maybe I'm wrong, so other oppinions will be appreciated.

[Guest]

Actually FSNav WILL tune the Nav radio for you if you are letting FSNav fly the plane for you. Of course, I don't understand why people even bother to get into a plane and not fly it at all??? I'd rather be a passenger on a real aircraft, and fly my plane in Flight Simulator ;-)

[Guest]

Are the VORs etc. stored on the FS2002 disks anywhere to check up on? I have a few books I have to thumb through which is more inefficent than if they were stored on the disk.Thanks,Robbie

[Guest]

I think when it comes to flight simulation, "Whatever works best for you..." is the rule to follow.For me, the airplane is mine below 10,000' unless the weather is too godawful for hand flying. That gives me a lot of time to tune radios, make sure the airplane's doing what I want it to do, and line myself up. I found that my flying improved tremendously just by taking over from the autopilot and handling the approaches myself.I also set the missed approach headings and altitudes so that otto can handle them for me. I'd rather just hit Z and I'll worry about cleaning up the configuration and ensure that I don't hit anything with the aircraft. Once I've got the airplane cleaned up and we're doing well enough on the go-around, I'll turn the ap off and handle it myself. At least this way when I get the Microsoft ATC telling me to go around again I've not got to set the radios all over again.

[Guest Joshieca]

When you set the auto pilot with the Approach switch and set your NAV 1 radio to the rny ILS does the auto pilot then control the altitude as well?

[Guest]

Joshieca,no of course not,you'll first have to intercept the localizer at intercept altitude (this is done by ATC giving you radar vectors).if app is armed with the correct ILS frequency,the AP will intercept the localizer automatically,then it will intercept the glideslope automatically