Hello,1)I did my first ILS landing yesterday and it worked perfectly fine and the aircraft altitude and headings were working perfectly. However when I use my autopilot and set my altitude, headings, speed etc. It all worked for the first time but not the altitude. The altitude I put as 3000ft at first and it worked perfectly. But after a while when the ATC asks me to decend or climb to a perticular altitude the altitude stays the same and don't respond. I do put the new altitude on the altitude key in the autopilot section. I tried reseting the autopilot but all it did was stall then crash. Anyone know why is this happening? Also my speed is usually 250 knots.2)Meanwhile in my flight from Luton to Paris Charles De Gaulles, its completely fine until the last couple of miles. The ATC gives me a runway with a heading. Now when I go and find the ILS frequency and the course heading its totally different from the heading I got from ATC. But although its different I put the heading from the map in the course section and the heading from the ATC in the heading section where it responds. However after a few moments my ATC gives me another heading which I use which takes me away from the airport and the runway which I thought pretty wierd. After that I thought I would hear something else but the ATC just left go and does anybody know why is this? I was straight to the airport as well. Thank you for your big help

Hello,1)I did my first ILS landing yesterday and it worked perfectly fine and the aircraft altitude and headings were working perfectly. However when I use my autopilot and set my altitude, headings, speed etc. It all worked for the first time but not the altitude. The altitude I put as 3000ft at first and it worked perfectly. But after a while when the ATC asks me to decend or climb to a perticular altitude the altitude stays the same and don't respond. I do put the new altitude on the altitude key in the autopilot section. I tried reseting the autopilot but all it did was stall then crash. Anyone know why is this happening? Also my speed is usually 250 knots.2)Meanwhile in my flight from Luton to Paris Charles De Gaulles, its completely fine until the last couple of miles. The ATC gives me a runway with a heading. Now when I go and find the ILS frequency and the course heading its totally different from the heading I got from ATC. But although its different I put the heading from the map in the course section and the heading from the ATC in the heading section where it responds. However after a few moments my ATC gives me another heading which I use which takes me away from the airport and the runway which I thought pretty wierd. After that I thought I would hear something else but the ATC just left go and does anybody know why is this? I was straight to the airport as well. Thank you for your big help

Hi 031195ds,Re: 1) Make sure you establish on ILS before you descend. By establishing I mean lining up with the runway at 3000 feet. Another thing is to be BELOW the glideslope. Being above the glideslope will be impossible for it to be a proper ILS landing. Re: 2) The heading you had from ATC would have been to intercept the localiser. This means they will give you a heading so that you don't intercept it too shaprly. They will say something like "BAW123 you are 15 track miles from Charles-de-Gaulle. turn left heading 240 to interceot the localiser for runway 27. Once you are estblished, descend with the glide."This is when you make that turn to 240 (in this example) for runway 27 (again, in this example). As the pink diamond moves on you primary flight display press the 'LOC' or the 'VOR/LOC' button and it will turn to establish on the ILS. Then you should see the vertical pink diamond move down and then you need to press the 'APP' button. Make sure that you have the localiser freq. in the NAV radio and the course heading in the,well... course heading.

<br />Hi 031195ds,<br /><br />Re: 1) Make sure you establish on ILS before you descend. By establishing I mean lining up with the runway at 3000 feet. Another thing is to be BELOW the glideslope. Being above the glideslope will be impossible for it to be a proper ILS landing. <br /><br />Re: 2) The heading you had from ATC would have been to intercept the localiser. This means they will give you a heading so that you don't intercept it too shaprly. They will say something like "BAW123 you are 15 track miles from Charles-de-Gaulle. turn left heading 240 to interceot the localiser for runway 27. Once you are estblished, descend with the glide."<br /><br />This is when you make that turn to 240 (in this example) for runway 27 (again, in this example). As the pink diamond moves on you primary flight display press the 'LOC' or the 'VOR/LOC' button and it will turn to establish on the ILS. Then you should see the vertical pink diamond move down and then you need to press the 'APP' button. <br /><br />Make sure that you have the localiser freq. in the NAV radio and the course heading in the,well... course heading.<br />

<br /><br /><br />1) OK but the altitude won't respond when the ATC asks me to climb do you know why?2) So why if I go past or over the airport because thats what happened and I did put the frequency in the NAV1 radio and put the Nav button and the NAV1 button in the bottom. So any other conclusionThank you

<br /><br /><br />1) OK but the altitude won't respond when the ATC asks me to climb do you know why?2) So why if I go past or over the airport because thats what happened and I did put the frequency in the NAV1 radio and put the Nav button and the NAV1 button in the bottom. So any other conclusionThank you

1) Depends which aircraft you're flying. The FS9 default aircraft (IIRC - I don't fly them any more) should climb or descend if (i) the autopilot is engaged; (ii) altitude hold mode is engaged; and (iii) you change the selected altitude. Quite a few addon planes don't do this - you need also to select a vertical speed (+ve or -ve, depending on whether you want to climb or descend). So check the vertical speed setting on the autopilot too - if it shows zero the plane isn't going to do anything.2) You have got the autopilot in NAV and not GPS mode, haven't you? If it's the latter the plane will follow the GPS course, not the localizer or glideslope. There should be a switch somewhere on the main panel.

1) Depends which aircraft you're flying. The FS9 default aircraft (IIRC - I don't fly them any more) should climb or descend if (i) the autopilot is engaged; (ii) altitude hold mode is engaged; and (iii) you change the selected altitude. Quite a few addon planes don't do this - you need also to select a vertical speed (+ve or -ve, depending on whether you want to climb or descend). So check the vertical speed setting on the autopilot too - if it shows zero the plane isn't going to do anything.2) You have got the autopilot in NAV and not GPS mode, haven't you? If it's the latter the plane will follow the GPS course, not the localizer or glideslope. There should be a switch somewhere on the main panel.

OK but I'm pretty sure that you keep the NAV on when your 10nm from making a ILS landing and one more what does the VOR do?

OK but I'm pretty sure that you keep the NAV on when your 10nm from making a ILS landing and one more what does the VOR do?

Yes you should - that's my point. Basically FS9 autopilots can establish the course to follow from one of two sources (NAV or GPS). If you select the NAV source, tune your NAV1 radio to a VOR frequency and select NAV mode it'll capture and follow that - and if you've tuned to an ILS frequency and selected APP (approach) mode it will capture and follow both localiser and glideslope. If you select the GPS source and NAV mode it'll follow the GPS course in your flight plan - NOT the ILS, even if your radio is properly tuned. So be sure that you've selected NAV as the source: in the default 737, for instance, the NAV/GPS switch is at the top of the main panel about a third of the way across from the left. Approach mode won't work if you don't and your aircraft won't follow the ILS. So in short:1) Tune your NAV1 radio to the ILS frequency you want;2) Select NAV as the source for the autopilot;3) Select APP mode on the autopilot.Also bear in mind that any aircraft (real or virtual) will only follow an ILS if you position it properly to intercept the signal. You should approach the localiser from no more than 30 degrees either side of the localiser course - so if the runway heading is 270 degrees you should approach from between 240 and 300 degrees. You should always approach the glideslope from below - 2,500 feet or so above ground level at 10nm out should do it. And you should keep your speed down - varies depending on the aircraft but no more than 180-200kts in any case. Hope this is some help. Although I've probably made it seem much more complicated than it is - once you've mastered it you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.