2 minutes ago, fppilot said:

Does the sim do any form of autotuning when a runway is selected (departure or destination

The 172 G1000 does. I was flying without plan at all (just selected a departure in the World screen). Later during flight I entered a FP from scratch and selected an IFR approach. On final when I switched the CDI from GPS to NAV1 it was already tuned to the ILS and the correct course was already set

5 minutes ago, fppilot said:

Great discussion.  Helpful in general. 

My consternation was that I had selected a departure airport and runway, and a destination airport and runway. However I do not recall the selection of that destination runway including an approach (any approach).  Much less picking up an ILS freq signal from 800 miles away.  So I had done nothing with any ILS frequency.  In fact nothing with any NA

V frequency.  If my NAV was tuned to an ILS frequency then that was totally coincidental.  Does the sim do any form of autotuning when a runway is selected (departure or destination)?

I’m not at my sim at the moment. It might auto tune if a flight plan is loaded.

It appears that if you select a simple GPS direct flight plan, you do not get the option to select a specific approach at your destination. If you select a low or high level airways IFR FP, then you do get the option to select a STAR (if available) and an approach.

9 minutes ago, fppilot said:

If my NAV was tuned to an ILS frequency then that was totally coincidental.  Does the sim do any form of autotuning when a runway is selected (departure or destination)?

Mine always default to 110.50. Which is always a localizer (ILS) frequency. If you want to set a CRS, first tune a VOR frequency, then use the CRS knob.