I'm learning how to fly an approach using Prepar3D v4.5, Reality-XP's GTN 750, and Flysimware's Falcon 50. I quickly read the GTN manual but still have lots of newbie questions.

Does anyone know of a nice walk-through (detailed) tutorial?

On the screen shot below, after arriving at the SNS VOR: 

1. How do I go about capturing the ILS? 
2. Do I manually fly to ZEBED? How far? How do I get from SNS VOR to ZEBED  since there are no directions from SNS?
3. Do I need to activate the plane's auto pilot?
4. At what point in time do I press the APR button on the plane's auto pilot and the 'Load Approach & Activate' button on the GTN?
5. Can GTN auto land the plane? There is no auto land info in the plane's manual.
6. What are those triangles besides the name?
7. The 'i' (letter eye) besides the triangle in ZEBED, is that the symbol for the Initial approach fix? What about the f, m, and h.
8. When do I activate the ILS 110.70 frequency or is that automatically done by the GTN?
9. What is supposed to be in the Channel/ID box below. Why is it blank?
10. In importing a *.gfp flight plan to the GTN all the waypoints are named USERxxx. Is there a way to rename these somehow?
 

For what it's worth, I'm flying VOR to VOR from KHAF which is south of San Francisco. The destination is KMRY in Monterey which is about 90 nm and about 10 minutes away. 

Thank you.

i=IAF  Initial Approach fix

f=FAF Final Approach fix

m=MAF Missed Approach fix

Your approach route should fly you to the IAF ZEBED.  You can fly this by hand, or use the autopilot in NAV mode.

Once you are on final, you can switch the GTN to VLOC mode with the ILS frequency tuned in, and when you see the glideslope indicator active and above you, you can press APR on the autopilot, or fly the final leg by hand.

The last 300 feet or so, you fly by hand... no autoland here.

SNS has no particular meaning in this plan, other than it happens to be the hold after a missed approach..

You can navigate to the IAF from any direction.

Edited April 22, 20215 yr by Bert Pieke

@Bert Pieke Clear and concise as usual. Thank you. How do I get to the IAF (ZEBED in this case) by hand from SNS since that fix does not have guidance info in the screen?

Btw, I bought a bunch of planes at the latest Carenado sale, and I was seriously considering one of your favorites, the C90GTX, but I already have several twin props and opted to buy some others which can fly faster instead eg. the Phenom 100 and the XL560 Citation. 

Edited April 22, 20215 yr by oneleg

12 minutes ago, oneleg said:

I was seriously considering one of your favorites, the C90GTX, but I already have several twin props and opted to buy some others which could fly faster instead eg. the Phenom 100 and the XL560 Citation. 

You can fit an rxp GTN 750 into the XL560..

20 hours ago, oneleg said:

@Bert Pieke Clear and concise as usual. Thank you. How do I get to the IAF (ZEBED in this case) by hand from SNS since that fix does not have guidance info in the screen?

Any number of ways.  I'm not the greatest simpilot, so I might do things the wrong way, but here are my options for getting to ZEBED:

1. If doing a flight with ATC, you could request vectors to ZEBED.   (Pilot2ATC has this capability, for example)
2. Or you could fly directly to ZEBED using the GTN750, and load the approach once there and turned in.
3.  Or one could switch SNS VOR to NAV2, and fly outbound on the 255 degree radial of SNS....and while doing that, tune the ILS to NAV1.   I would fly this leg rather slowly (in the Falcon that's still pretty fast) so you don't overshoot your turn.  Once you pass abeam of Half Moon Bay's ILS your NAV1 should kick off and shortly thereafter, you enter into the "feather" of the ILS path, your NAV1 needle should begin centering...then you know it's time to turn....and in the Falcon50 you will likely overshoot your turn, but that's ok, you should have time to correct this.

In a larger / faster aircraft (and the Falcon really almost is that...) I would consider flying outbound on 255 for only a short time, then turn the reciprocal course of the Half Moon ILS...this would take you out over the bay, but it would buy you real estate to get your fast aircraft turned into the ILS and the IAF (initial approach fix).  If you tune the ILS to NAV1 it should pick up once you're over the bay.  If you're flying in or over solid cloud deck and get disoriented, you can always fly back to SNS VOR and get turned around for another go at it.  Typically in those conditions though, I'd be full IFR with ATC guidance to vector me in, worst-case scenario.

20 hours ago, oneleg said:

 

Btw, I bought a bunch of planes at the latest Carenado sale, and I was seriously considering one of your favorites, the C90GTX, but I already have several twin props and opted to buy some others which can fly faster instead eg. the Phenom 100 and the XL560 Citation. 

I like their Phenom 300 with the GTN mod.  But I like the Flysimware Falcon 50 even better.  I flew it a lot last winter, all over Mexico.

2 minutes ago, Mace said:

Any number of ways.  I'm not the greatest simpilot, so I might do things the wrong way, but here are my options for getting to ZEBED:

1. If doing a flight with ATC, you could request vectors to ZEBED.   (Pilot2ATC has this capability, for example)
2. Or you could fly directly to ZEBED using the GTN750, and load the approach once there and turned in.
3.  Or one could switch SNS VOR to NAV2, and fly outbound on the 255 degree radial of SNS....and while doing that, tune the ILS to NAV1.   I would fly this leg rather slowly (in the Falcon that's still pretty fast) so you don't overshoot your turn.  Once you pass abeam of Half Moon Bay's ILS your NAV1 should kick off and shortly thereafter, you enter into the "feather" of the ILS path, your NAV1 needle should begin centering...then you know it's time to turn....and in the Falcon50 you will likely overshoot your turn, but that's ok, you should have time to correct this.

In a larger / faster aircraft (and the Falcon really almost is that...) I would consider flying outbound on 255 for only a short time, then turn the reciprocal course of the Half Moon ILS...this would take you out over the bay, but it would buy you real estate to get your fast aircraft turned into the ILS and the IAF (initial approach fix).  If you tune the ILS to NAV1 it should pick up once you're over the bay.  If you're flying in or over solid cloud deck and get disoriented, you can always fly back to SNS VOR and get turned around for another go at it.  Typically in those conditions though, I'd be full IFR with ATC guidance to vector me in, worst-case scenario.

I like their Phenom 300 with the GTN mod.  But I like the Flysimware Falcon 50 even better.  I flew it a lot last winter, all over Mexico.

@Mace Thank you. I'm a long-term newbie if that makes sense (real life keeps interrupting).

I have the Phenom 300 and the add-on as well as Flysimware's Lear 35A. I figured there's probably enough similarity within each developers models to ease my learning curve ie. Carenado's Phenom 100 and 300, and Flysimware's Falcon 50 and Lear 35A. I bought the Falcon 50 since it was the only private jet that had the range to go from Hawaii to the West Coast (hoping to fly it around the world eventually).

For now, I'm ignoring ATC and just concentrating on learning how to do an approach using the GTN. Specifically, how to get to ZEBED since there are no guidance info available (I'm not seeing any - see below). Yeah, the Falcon is a fast flyer and may not be the best way or plane to learn. I keep overshooting the ILS feather and getting lost in the process. I'm looking into a slow single prop that can use the GTN as a better alternative to the Falcon 50.

But for now, the big question is understanding your answer #2 above. Can you please provide more details. Exactly how do I get to the initial approach fix, ZEBED, from my last waypoint (VOR SNS) using the GTN and the auto pilot in the Falcon 50?

It's been awhile (for me and the GTN750)...but as I recall it does not have a direct-to function (if it does, someone will correct me).  Therefore, I would simply enter ZEBED as new waypoint following SNS, and let the autopilot do its thing.  

The problem with that, is you would overshoot the turn at ZEBED (that is a sharp angle for any aircraft, much less a Falcon).  That's why I suggested shortly after flying over SNS, switching to NAV/HDG mode and flying a reciprocal course of Half Moon Bay's ILS (reciprocal course would be 279 degrees magnetic) for a few minutes before turning south (189 deg magnetic) over the bay, until your ILS needle started centering, then left turn to 99 degrees to intercept the ILS, then hit APR mode on the autopilot as Bert mentions.

Look into some of the A2A aircraft, they are slower and some allow GTN integration, you can get good practice with them.

The Flysimware Falcon50's range is one of many good things about it.  We need a good Gulfstream V but I doubt it ever happens (Gulfstream doesn't like people making digital replicas of their aircraft).   To me the Embraer Phenom 300 is perfect though, it burns less virtual fuel than the Falcon, and it has 2200 nm range which is enough to go Gander-to-Shannon, which is sort of my litmus test for a transatlantic bizjet.

I'm eyeing MSFS now so I'm kinda reluctant to buy in to aircraft for P3D now. Also, I already have Milviz planes so I'll look into those first.

I'll continue checking out your solution for intercepting the ILS. Thank you.

50 minutes ago, oneleg said:

I'll continue checking out your solution for intercepting the ILS. Thank you.

I just looked at that approach on my GTN..

If you activate the approach to 10R via SNS, the autopilot will fly you to ZEBED in NAV mode on the autopilot, via SNS.

Fly at 2600 feet.

Then, it will turn you around at ZEBED and turn you to final.  Just try it!

Edited April 23, 20215 yr by Bert Pieke

18 minutes ago, Bert Pieke said:

Fly at 2600 feet.

Then, it will turn you around at ZEBED and turn you to final.  Just try it!

If you want to do this by the book, set the heading bug to the runway heading and when turned to final, press HDG on the autopilot.  Then press the CDI button on the GTN, switching to VLOC mode.  With the ILS frequency selected, you see the glideslope indicators active, and above you.  Then push the APR button on the autopilot and slow down as the autopilot will fly you down to the runway.  Speedbrakes, gear, flaps.  At 300 feet, turn off the autopilot and land by hand.

 

 

Edited April 23, 20215 yr by Bert Pieke

@Bert Pieke, thank you for the details. I'll study it.

What plane are you using?  Is it the Realair Lancair Legacy?

36 minutes ago, oneleg said:

@Bert Pieke, thank you for the details. I'll study it.

What plane are you using?  Is it the Realair Lancair Legacy?

It is indeed..

Just generate a custom STAR type approach to turn the acute angle of SNS => ZEBED => KMRY into a nice gentle  "U"  shaped turn that the sluggish simulator autopilot can cope with.

** In the Flight planner , on the  SNS => ZEBED  leg place mouse on red line , click and drag it to a position at least 5 nm abeam of ZEBED release to form a custom Waypoint , then ....

** In a similar manner create a couple of custom Waypoints between  ZEBED => WPT  in the direction further away from KMRY , they need to be 5 nm or more out to sea from ZEBED ,  if this "U" shaped STAR is made large enough the autopilot will have turned the aircraft close to an approach heading for KMRY , then switching the autopilot to APP mode will finalise the actual ILS approach heading alignment and capture .

** Your final approach flight plan will be  SNS => Wpt(1) => Wpt(2) => Wpt(3) => ZEBED => KMRY with the                          Wpt(1) => Wpt(2) => Wpt(3) => ZEBED portion forming the "U" turn .

Cheers Karol

 

Edited April 24, 20215 yr by COBS

I'm going to try the suggestions by keeping it as simple as possible. I was going to use a default slow single prop with VOR or HSI gauges, an auto-pilot, a GTN in a pop-up window, and departing from an airport (KWVI) close to the destination airport (KMRY).  The default Cessna 172 in previous versions of P3D and FSX would have been ideal. But I didn't realize until I looked for it that it is no longer included in the latest release of P3D 4.5. A second alternative would have been the Mooney but the panel display in that is blurred in my 27" monitor.

Fortunately, I still have FSX Steam which has the default Cessna 172 and I'll use that instead.

Edited April 27, 20215 yr by oneleg
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