I'm sure you've all seen this kinda thing many, many times...

[Will Dunn 0]

BUT. Please help me out here with landing ILS. I just can't get my head round it. I thought I knew what to do but clearly not. The ATC clears me for ILS approach and tells me to maintain altitude and gives me a final heading, and so I do this, but there's just so much going wrong after...I've got the NAV1 setting set and activated, nav/gps set to Nav. Then I click on the APP button and... instead of turning toward the runway heading, it deactivates the ALT HOLD button and proceeds to fly around in circles. Also the glide slope and localizer indicators on the hud aren't there. What am I doing wrong...?Sorry, I know it's vague, but I'm ridiculously frustrated over this; I've been trying unsuccessfully for about 2 hours. Thanks.

[Will Dunn 0]

Anybody...?

[Wendall 50]

Hi,This is a dumb question too, but do you have your CRS set as well?

[ESzczesniak 128]

FSX ATC has a bad habit of clearing you for the ILS when you're out of range (>30ish NM for LOC and >20ish NM for GS). Are you in range? If not, you're autopilot will be very confused trying to capture either of these.

[Will Dunn 0]

Hi,This is a dumb question too, but do you have your CRS set as well?

Lol. Yeah, set to 081 which is the runway heading for 8R at Gatwick, the place I'm trying to land at...

FSX ATC has a bad habit of clearing you for the ILS when you're out of range (>30ish NM for LOC and >20ish NM for GS). Are you in range? If not, you're autopilot will be very confused trying to capture either of these.

Ahh, this may be it. It cleared me 36NMs away from Gatwick but the "flying around in circles" result comes a minute or two after that... so I'd guess that I'm anywhere from 25 to 32ish NMs... I'd have thought it's either what you suggested or just me doing something wrong, I just can't figure out what.

[Guest jahman]

Try clicking the APP button when you're one dot below the glideslope (GS neeedle is one dot above center). Cheers, - jahman.

[Will Dunn 0]

But I can't see the GS needle or the Localizer needle... or do they show up when you get in range of the ILS?

[Guest jahman]

do they show up when you get in range of the ILS?

Yes! (Provided of course NAV1 is tuned properly). Cheers, - jahman.

[Will Dunn 0]

Yes! (Provided of course NAV1 is tuned properly). Cheers, - jahman.

And then when the localizer shows up, this is the time to turn on the APP button?

[Guest jahman]

-

[brucek 38]

Have you tried manually flying the ILS? When I did my instrument rating, the autopilot was never able to be used until I could manually do the procedure within PTS standards first. If you wanted to emulate rw flying, and this would also isolate the AP from the problem. Bruce.

[Guest jahman]

No, you should approach the GS from below, wait for the GS needle to move down from the top until you are only one one dot below the GS, and only then activate APP. Also you should have your LOC needle centered before intercepting the GS (and before activating APP). Cheers, - jahman.

[Will Dunn 0]

Have you tried manually flying the ILS? When I did my instrument rating, the autopilot was never able to be used until I could manually do the procedure within PTS standards first. If you wanted to emulate rw flying, and this would also isolate the AP from the problem.Bruce.

Is that just doing a Visual approach? Honestly, I'm so bad at recognizing what is what!! I can do a visual approach pretty well... I just wanted to master ILS landings.

No, you should approach the GS from below, wait for the GS needle to move down from the top until you are only one one dot below the GS, and only then activate APP. Also you should have your LOC needle centered before intercepting the GS (and before activating APP). Cheers, - jahman.

So basically I need to wait for the localizer needle to show up on the HUD then fly the plane manually (but keeping ALT HOLD and Autothrottle on) to line up the needle in the centre, then wait until the Glide slope needle is one dot above centre, and then finally turn on the APP?I was under the impression that you could intercept the localizer through autopilot, maybe that's where I was going wrong.

[brucek 38]

jahman is right. You should always intercept the glideslope from below ( glideslope is above you as you close to intercept). This is because of false glideslopes that can occur from the correct one being reflected off the surrounding ground, and are usually at a greater angle than the correct glideslope, therefore are usually above it, which is why you should be below it.But I think you're turning in circles is more related to the localizer. When you tune the localizer, do you have the correct frequency? From what you said above you do have the course set to runway heading. I don't know what ATC tells you, but you should be intercepting the LOC at about 30 degrees to runway heading. As you approach the LOC, you should see the needle move from full scale towards the center. As this is occurring, turn the course knob and see of the loc needle changes in response, if it does then you are tuned to a VOR and have tuned the wrong frequency. At intercept, make sure that the course is set back to runway heading, then turn the aircraft to that heading. If, at that point, you still want to use the AP, then try enabling the app mod. It shouldn't be that hard, but it might help solve you problem.The wild card might be ATC too. One thing that can cause your problem is a course reversal, in that you are either flying a heading that is a reciprocal of the required course/heading, or you are using a back course approach and aren't using that ap mode.Good luck, Bruce.

[Will Dunn 0]

I'm certain I had the right frequency, yeah. Well the ATC's final heading that they set me was 045 I believe so that's what, 36 degrees away from the runway heading? I have to say, when I looked at the map, I was way out from the airport and from the ILS feather. Anyway, I'm gonna try it again, thanks for the help so far guys.