Workingtitle CJ4 : question about APPR mode

[Bad_T 588]

i just tried the fantastic workingtitle cj4 mode for the first time (wow i'm late 🙊).

i have a little question about APPR mode, there's probably something i do wrong, with all specialists in this forum i try to ask here before loosing too much time trying to solve/understand it by myself (very sorry if it's obvious, i did some search but couldn't really find a definitive answer).

As you can see in the screen below, i'm about 10NM from the airport with APPR mode armed and at that moment still below the glidescope. Everything seems ok to me, the problem is that LOC will never be captured (it should be already because i'm less than 10 NM from the airport) and the plane will never descend because obviously if LOC is not active GS will not be active either.

I'm at TFFF (ILS10, 109.90), well below the GS. if i do the exact same procedure with the default cj4 or other default planes everything works fine (LOC/GS is captured).

Note : if i do a full flight and the approach is loaded in the FMS everything works fine (LOC/GS are captured), but what if i just want to fly without setting up the FMS (let's my FMS is out of service 😶), shouldn't that work too ? (maybe not 🙈).

Thank you 🍻

[rka 916]

You need to switch Nav Source to the radio, there's a small knob on the panel left of the PFD.

[Bad_T 588]

Thank you very much for your reply @rka.

Unfortunately I still can't do it properly (i guess i'm just doing it really wrong), not sure what switch you were pointing at but i tried changing to NAV mode or switching through the 'nav src' in the pfd menu but still it never catches the LOC/GS ...

In the tutorial i checked there's always a flightplan and, with that, it works fine also on my end, but when i have no flightplan it can't make it work, but yeah certainly 'user-error' a little switch somewhere, i will do some more tries.

[manageablebits 11]

This confused me so I've just tried it and got a GS lock. What small knob do you mean rka?

As far as I'm aware you just tune the ILS and go to APPR mode near the FAF. It will switch to loc from fms itself, or you can hit the nav button to do it.

[Bad_T 588]

can you maybe post a screenshot of what you see @manageablebits ?

you said you a GS lock just by putting the correct frequency and clicking on APPR but with nothing in the approach in the FMS ? That's what i'm trying to do but i just can't achieve that (but i'm sure it's very simple 🙊). Thank you

[cwburnett 1,809]

3 hours ago, Bad_T said:

As you can see in the screen below, i'm about 10NM from the airport with APPR mode armed and at that moment still below the glidescope. Everything seems ok to me, the problem is that LOC will never be captured (it should be already because i'm less than 10 NM from the airport) and the plane will never descend because obviously if LOC is not active GS will not be active either.

It looks like you're on a slightly diverging course from the LOC course (magenta donut on HSI is to the left of heading and to the left of the green course needle.

LOC will only capture on a converging course, so if you turned 10 degrees right in heading mode, I think it would capture pretty much right away.

As for GS, the GS armed indication will only appear after LOC is captured, and then will capture itself as you approach the GS from below.

It looks like you almost had it there, modes look great, I think you just needed to set a converging heading with the hdg bug.

Hope that helps, if it still isn't working for you, please file a bug for us on GitHub.

[MattNischan 3,904]

Adding to what Chris said, you should be able to fly just an ILS without an approach loaded in the FMS now as of the latest version (previously having an approach loaded was required), but we've had a few reports of that not working for some folks.

So it may also be a bug in the approach-less ILS APPR code, if you try what he says there and it isn't working for you.

-Matt

[Bad_T 588]

 many thanks @cwburnett and @MattNischan, it's probably not a bug, i will give it a few more tries i'm pretty sure i do something very basic wrong because other seem to succeed with that, i think i tried intercepting the LOC path more with the HDG mode in following tries after the screenshot but i will do another 50 tries and watch another batch of videos 😁

many thanks WT teams for your amazing mods !

[manageablebits 11]

https://imgur.com/a/kYMK4lC

I'm struggling to get images in here and I had to do the whole thing again when I thought I had screen grabbed but didn't.

[manageablebits 11]

For what its worth that ILS GS felt somehow slightly difficult to catch. Maybe it's just because I wasn't doing a real flight and dropped in right in front.

I put the airport in the destination and selected ILS 10 as the runway but didn't pick a particular approach.  I switched from NAV to APPR and when it was ready the system just flipped over to LOC without me having to.

Edited June 27, 2021 by manageablebits

[manageablebits 11]

[Bad_T 588]

thanks again @manageablebits for taking the time to do that, it seems from your screen that you have loaded the approach in the FMS, if i do that it works for me too. I was trying without approach loaded in the FMS. I will do some more test, i'll certainly post back here if when i find what i did wrong.

[manageablebits 11]

Just now, Bad_T said:

thanks again @manageablebits for taking the time to do that, it seems from your screen that you have loaded the approach in the FMS, if i do that it works for me too. I was trying without approach loaded in the FMS. I will do some more test, i'll certainly post back here if when i find what i did wrong.

Ah I missed that note at the bottom of your original comment! 🙂

Time for me to try again then.

[Bad_T 588]

Certainly appreciated but don't waste too much time on this though 🍻

[cwburnett 1,809]

@Bad_T  I was curious so just tried, sure enough, it doesn't capture the LOC. I'll have a look at the code 👍

Edited June 27, 2021 by cwburnett
wrong quote