I have tried an ILS autoland at KHOU three times on runway 12R. My flight plan says to be at 2000' at Jabbs and I am. I then toggle appr/land and get autoland displayed on the PFD above AP1, but I never get LOC displayed and I never get G/S displayed. I have done this on the first tutorial so I know that it works. Attached are three screen shots. When I get real close to KHOU I get told that there is no loc. The odd thing is when I get past KHOU and do a 180 turn for a manual landing on runway 30L I get a message stating that the loc and G/S have been picked up (third screen shot). On the third try I manually set my Nav VOR1, VOR2 and ILS to 111.3 and that made no difference. All three screen shots are from my third try.I did just notice in the screen shots that it shows IUPC as ILS1. I have CoPilot Pro from Abacus and that shows IUPC for 30L and IPRQ for 12R, but it shows the ILS freq for both 12R and 30L as 111.3 plus the 12R approach data that I downloaded from Airnav shows the 12R freq as 111.3 and the CRS as 129 and that is what shows on my MCDU.Any ideas what I am doing wrong or what is wrong?Regards,Rod Storer

What you're seeing is an FSX oddity.As you can see on the approach plates for 12R and 30L, Localizer frequencies can be shared for reciprocal ends of the runway. In the real world, only one of the transmitters is active at a time, depending on the runway in use.In FSX, the computer has to make some decisions about which transmitter should be active, and for some reason, it's not always correct. I don't know the specifics of the issue, but there are ways to increase the chances that FSX will pick the right one. I think I've heard that waiting to tune the receiver until after you're downwind of the threshold you want to use can help, but I'm not sure.For what it's worth, I don't think I've ever actually experienced this problem myself. Hopefully someone else will be able to chime in and give you a reliable workaround.

I have tried an ILS autoland at KHOU three times on runway 12R. My flight plan says to be at 2000' at Jabbs and I am. I then toggle appr/land and get autoland displayed on the PFD above AP1, but I never get LOC displayed and I never get G/S displayed. I have done this on the first tutorial so I know that it works. Attached are three screen shots. When I get real close to KHOU I get told that there is no loc. The odd thing is when I get past KHOU and do a 180 turn for a manual landing on runway 30L I get a message stating that the loc and G/S have been picked up (third screen shot). On the third try I manually set my Nav VOR1, VOR2 and ILS to 111.3 and that made no difference. All three screen shots are from my third try.I did just notice in the screen shots that it shows IUPC as ILS1. I have CoPilot Pro from Abacus and that shows IUPC for 30L and IPRQ for 12R, but it shows the ILS freq for both 12R and 30L as 111.3 plus the 12R approach data that I downloaded from Airnav shows the 12R freq as 111.3 and the CRS as 129 and that is what shows on my MCDU.Any ideas what I am doing wrong or what is wrong?Regards,Rod Storer

I am not a heavy autoland flyer and know very little about this aspect. However, the plate appears to support a dh of 296ft. and does not appear to support autoland which to my understanding is a catIII or so approach..

No ILS tuned. Open the map from FS menu and check the ILS frequency that FS thinks that runway has. Unless you have updated scenery or afcads, FS will still be using the values from its 2005 database. If this is not the same as the frequency that your nav data has, then you will be tuned to the wrong frequency and so can not follow the ILS until up update the NAV Radio page in the FMC.

I've flown into Hobby many times, being both from Texas and a SWA fan.... the post regarding the 12R/30L ambiguity is spot on. The default afcad in msfs always has backcourse enabled even on runways with dual localizers on same frequency and it has a problem figuring out which one to choose unless you are clearly on one end of the runway or the other.The problem is when you approach the airport opposite direction from landing. Don't select localizer until on downwind past the threshold. If you were arriving on the LISSE arrival, this is not a problem because you are coming in from the west to east and landing southeast.

Thanks for the responses, I will try again.Dan, in regards to your comment, I am flying straight to 12R from Dallas so I am not coming in from the opposite direction. I am not up on all the lingo so I am not sure what you mean about not selecting the localizer "until downwind past the threshold". I am not selecting autoland until I am at Jabbs and 12R is a straight shot from Jabbs, I will fly this again and wait unitl I get to Royce before I select autoland, hopefully that will make a difference.At least I know that it is not me. I did an ILS autoland on 25L at KPHX this afternoon and it worked great, so that made me think that there was something odd going on at KHOU.Regards,Rod Storer

No ILS tuned. Open the map from FS menu and check the ILS frequency that FS thinks that runway has. Unless you have updated scenery or afcads, FS will still be using the values from its 2005 database. If this is not the same as the frequency that your nav data has, then you will be tuned to the wrong frequency and so can not follow the ILS until up update the NAV Radio page in the FMC.

I tried this and it is a no go, the ILS freq in the FSX map is the same freq that the FMC tuned to automatically. Thanks for the idea though, it was worth a try!Rod Storer

Both stock FSX and real world KHOU ILS12R are 111.30/129 and have been for awhile. I just verified this with ADE.In you screenies, there is no ILS ID/Freq on the PFD which means you don't have it set up correctly. I can't tell why, did you try to select the approach in the FMS and let it do it automatically or are you trying to do it manually?Put a stock airplane on the runway and select the ILS, does it work here? If not then you got a problem with scenery. If so, then there is a problem with the way you set up the approach in the MD-11. I'm not sure which it is but I hope this helps.

Both stock FSX and real world KHOU ILS12R are 111.30/129 and have been for awhile. I just verified this with ADE.In you screenies, there is no ILS ID/Freq on the PFD which means you don't have it set up correctly. I can't tell why, did you try to select the approach in the FMS and let it do it automatically or are you trying to do it manually?Put a stock airplane on the runway and select the ILS, does it work here? If not then you got a problem with scenery. If so, then there is a problem with the way you set up the approach in the MD-11. I'm not sure which it is but I hope this helps.

I set up my star with the FMS. I can do an autoland on 30L, but not 12R. When trying an autoland at 12R I check the ILS freq in Nav and it is the right freq 111.30/129. I do not think that it can not be anything that I am doing wrong since I can do an autoland on 30L and I have done autolands at KPHX, so I know what to do and what to look for.On my system KHOU is a freeware airport, so I have posted a question on the ADE support forum over at fsdevelopers asking what to look for after I open up the bgl to see if the KHOU version I have has the right ILS information for 12R.Also like I said above someplace, when trying an autoland on 12R I do not pick up the ILS, but when I over fly 12R, do a 180 turn and come back to 30L for a manual landing I pick up the loc and g/s. On the FSX map for KHOU the ILS freg and radial for 12R and 30L are the same so maybe it has something to do with the KHOU bgl that I have installed.Rod Storer

That would be my guess. The default is fine. Have you tried it with a default Cessna sitting in position on 12R to see if there is a ILS at all?

I set up my star with the FMS. I can do an autoland on 30L, but not 12R.

I would have ventured the guess that it has to do with the fact that 12R is not equipped for a Cat II or III approach. But neither is 30L. So in reality you are not allowed to autoland on either of those runways. Only 04 is autoland approved.

True, but the simulation has no knowledge of this. An ILS is an ILS in MSFS, and in the aircraft too. I don't think the problem is autoland, it is a missing LOC/GS for a runway that he is trying to figure out.

I opened KHOU with ADE and both 12R and 30L have an ILS localizer and freq for both is 111.30, the only difference is that 12R has an identifier of IPRQ and 30L has an identifier of IUPU. When flying the PMDG MD11 or the AS F16 I am only picking up the IUPU 30L identifier so for some reason neither is picking up the IPRQ identifier no matter what direction I am coming from with I tune NAV1 to 111.30.When you say that the default AP is fine Dan do you mean that you have done an ILS autoland with the MD11 on 12R or just that you can pick up 111.30? If you just pick up 111.30 what is the identifier?By the way, this has nothing to do with 12R not being equipped in real life for an ILS autoland approach, FSX does not care! In the sim 12R has a ILS localizer with an identifier and the PMDG MD11 and the AS F16 should pick it up. There is some reason why both planes will only pick up the IUPU 30L identifier and will not pickup the IPRQ 12R identifier.Regards,Rod Storer

Rod,As you've figured out, the problem is FSX related and not necessarily an MD-11 issue. Since you checked ADE and the 12R localizer is there and correct, I think the next thing to try is to get FSX to activate the correct Localizer. Are you flying with any AI traffic enabled? If so, what runway are they using? 30L?Some FSX airports will allow certain runways to remain active with a slight tailwind. This occurs as a result of a complex "scoring" system used to determine the active runway. Wind direction, wind strength, runway length, approach coding, and even the availablity of an FSX "Start Position" affect a runway's score. With that in mind, try and stack the deck in favor of the 12's:Manually set the wind right down the runway at 25 or 30kt, fly the default cessna (no reason to bother with the added complexity of the MD-11 for this exercise), and see if the 12R LOC/GS are active.Failing that, you might want to deactivate the addon airport and revert to stock and test it again.

Thanks Nick and I may give that a try, but at this time since I know it is not a PMDG MD11 issue and is some clitch in the way FSX works with ILS localizers at each end of the same runway I am probably just going to move on and accept the fact that when I run into this I will just switch to manual and land.Regards,Rod Storer