As mentioned above, different situations may require different procedures and techniques:

 

If you get vectored for a long final, it may actually be safer to arm LOC, instead of waiting for the G/S indication to appear - that way you make sure you have correct lateral guidance ... one item less to worry about.

 

On a shorter final, with the G/S indication already active, arming just the LOC doesn't really make much sense: You will still need to push another button (APP) later on, thereby creating a 'deferred item' which unnecessarily complicates your approach.

 

So, who is right and who is wrong:

• Ryan (author of the tutorial) is right to describe one technique in order to get you started with the T7. Describing a multitude of options would have rather increased complexity and, thereby, confusion, which isn't exactly the intent of a tutorial.
• And Kyle is right to describe a different technique, explaining the benefit of it, and thereby encouraging you to enhance your skill set and knowledge.

The tutorial is great to come back to it in case you're experiencing difficulties in basic operations of the plane. But you shouldn't cling to it; the real fun starts when you add regulations, company rules, weather, ATC (Rob mentioned those "slam dunk approaches") to it.

Then why is it stated to press LOC before in the PMDG tutorials? Not saying you guys are wrong, but why are they opting for telling their users to press LOC before, instead of not?

Because it is safer.

 

If you know what you are doing (not meant to insult anybody) then you will be able to predict whether or not LOC will be captured before GS.

 

If YES, then you can press APP.

As a better practice maybe?

 

Sometimes you are not clear for the approach  but to join the LOC only. In that case you should only pres LOC until ATC clears you for the approach.

yes to both.

Then why is it stated to press LOC before in the PMDG tutorials? Not saying you guys are wrong, but why are they opting for telling their users to press LOC before, instead of not?

It's a tutorial so it prepares you to use all the controls. In practice you may not have to do so, or may do things in a different order. It's not the only way of doing things.

 

Pressing APP arms both LOC and G/S so you don't need to press the LOC button first. Having it as a separate button is a throwback to older autopilots and users of the MD-11 will note that there is only an app button on that autopilot. Procedurally if cleared to approach you should only arm the localiser until cleared on the ILS. But in practice you can always disarm approach if ILS clearance is not received, in effect a go around condition.

 

 

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