Last night I was planning to practice hand flying. I took off from Victoria, BC, (CYYJ) and flew around for a bit and decided that I would land at Vancouver (CYVR). Victoria is an uncontrolled airfield so, after guessing a suitable runway (actually, no guessing, just the shortest taxi lol) I made the correct calls. To call CYVR I selected Vancouver from the drop down list. 

Things went pear shaped as I could only have CYVR as an uncontrolled airfield. There had been plenty of calls - and ATC - coming on the radio clearing aircraft to land on 26L when I had not changed the frequency from Victoria. Nope, I could not get CYVR ATC.

Any suggestions as I may want to do something similar, fly VFR and then land elsewhere possibly hand flying an ILS approach?

i dont think you can do that via atc without a flightplan?  (not totally sure)

but ofcourse you always can handfly any ils.

29 minutes ago, wim123 said:

i dont think you can do that via atc without a flightplan?  (not totally sure)

but ofcourse you always can handfly any ils.

You definitely should be able to dot that, and I've done so lots of times in MSFS, though not at Vancouver. Normally, you select the airport from the "nearest airports" list, then tune to the tower frequency and request to land there. Ususally you get the instructions on how to enter the pattern or simply "fly straight in".

33 minutes ago, Der Zeitgeist said:

You definitely should be able to dot that, and I've done so lots of times in MSFS, though not at Vancouver. Normally, you select the airport from the "nearest airports" list, then tune to the tower frequency and request to land there. Ususally you get the instructions on how to enter the pattern or simply "fly straight in".

yes but thats vfr, that works, the guy asks via ils.

i am not sure, can you fly an ils with vfr and atc.. without atc yes,

Edited June 28, 20214 yr by wim123

4 hours ago, Toneal2 said:

Last night I was planning to practice hand flying. I took off from Victoria, BC, (CYYJ) and flew around for a bit and decided that I would land at Vancouver (CYVR). Victoria is an uncontrolled airfield so, after guessing a suitable runway (actually, no guessing, just the shortest taxi lol) I made the correct calls. To call CYVR I selected Vancouver from the drop down list. 

Things went pear shaped as I could only have CYVR as an uncontrolled airfield. There had been plenty of calls - and ATC - coming on the radio clearing aircraft to land on 26L when I had not changed the frequency from Victoria. Nope, I could not get CYVR ATC.

Any suggestions as I may want to do something similar, fly VFR and then land elsewhere possibly hand flying an ILS approach?

I suggest getting a vatsim account and practice there. There are always controllers online and some airports with not too much traffic. I've been flying exclusively on vatsim in the turbo arrow from just flight and its been a ball. 

ATC isn't going to assign you an ILS approach unless you're on an IFR flight plan. If you want to fly the ILS approach anyway while VFR, in real life you would request a straight-in approach and inform the tower that you would like to fly the ILS down. The tower may or may not let you do it depending on other traffic conditions. 

The ATC in the sim is considerably more stupid than real life ATC, and you can't even request it. I've found it best to just ignore ATC and do what you want, because half the time ATC tells you to do the wrong thing anyway. This, of course, means you really need to keep your head on a swivel because of other traffic, both real players and AI, but you have to do that even when working with ATC, because a lot of the time ATC will direct the other traffic into the opposite traffic pattern it puts you in, and have you landing downwind on a runway that everyone else is landing in the opposite direction.

In short, it really makes the most sense to ignore in-game ATC, at least until someone decides to fix it. 

 

 

20 minutes ago, eslader said:

ATC isn't going to assign you an ILS approach unless you're on an IFR flight plan. If you want to fly the ILS approach anyway while VFR, in real life you would request a straight-in approach and inform the tower that you would like to fly the ILS down. 

 

This is probably what you're used to but I assure you it's not like that everywhere.  Any aircraft can request a practice ILS (VFR or IFR) from approach at any time irl.  True you may get denied at larger airports but at smaller ones it's common to fly approaches VFR, I've done them both as a pilot and vectored vfr aircraft as a controller irl.

Real life aside. I agree completely with your points regarding in-sim ATC hehe.

Edited June 28, 20214 yr by ryanbatcund

Just now, ryanbatcund said:

Any aircraft can request a practice ILS (VFR or IFR) at any time irl.

You're technically only supposed to request a "practice ILS" if you have an instructor on board who is conducting training with you. Otherwise, you request a straight-in approach, noting that you intend to fly the ILS down, and the tower can either approve the straight in approach or not. Works out to the same result, but some get sticky about the terminology used.

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2018/november/pilot/proficiency-needle-work

Quote

Also, do not request a “practice instrument approach” or “practice ILS”—this terminology refers to procedures for pilots training with an instrument instructor. Still, it’s vital to let the tower know your intention is to follow the ILS in toward the airport.

Of course, like I said, all that is immaterial in the sim, because unlike real-world controllers, sim-ATC is a moron that doesn't even get the stuff it's set up to do right, much less possessing the capacity to handle special requests. That's why I find it more realistic to ignore sim-ATC. If you guys acted like sim-ATC in real life, we'd have a crash every 10 minutes. 😉

 

Hi Toneal2, try to set your destination airport in the GPS or create a flightplan with your GPS. Activate the direct--to or flightplan that you just created. After that the ATC window should show you the option to request an IFR clearance for that new or altered route. Acknowledge and you get IFR instructions for the remaining fligth. It does not matter if you have started the session in VFR or without a flightplan. But I do not know if you always get to chose an ILS clearance. Hope it works for you.

Cheers 

Edited June 28, 20214 yr by Rasterfahnder

Firstly, thank you for your suggestions and useful information.

Secondly, various tests including removing everything from the Community file, restarting the computer and having a straightforward attempt to use the sim, I found that comms, nav and ATC are not working. I just get the uncontrolled list on the ATC, tuning the radio and nav has no effect.

I fear I may have to do a full reinstall.

6 hours ago, eslader said:

You're technically only supposed to request a "practice ILS" if you have an instructor on board who is conducting training with you. Otherwise, you request a straight-in approach, noting that you intend to fly the ILS down, and the tower can either approve the straight in approach or not.  

 

That article is weird...I would not request an ILS from tower.  I would call approach for that.  And they'd vector me to the final approach course.  They'd either clear me for the ils (if that facility has a letter to airman stating vfr acft will be provided some form of separation) or they'd tell me something like "maintain vfr, no separation services provided, practice approach approved."

If I requested it from tower (again kinda weird but I've heard pilots do that to me as a controller), I'd hear the tower issue me the phraseology just above.

I'd be willing to guess it's more common to get an vfr practice approach from a radar controller than a tower.  

What part of the US do you fly in?  Here in the Midwest and over in Socal you'll get services from approach.  

15 hours ago, Toneal2 said:

Firstly, thank you for your suggestions and useful information.

Secondly, various tests including removing everything from the Community file, restarting the computer and having a straightforward attempt to use the sim, I found that comms, nav and ATC are not working. I just get the uncontrolled list on the ATC, tuning the radio and nav has no effect.

I fear I may have to do a full reinstall.

It is possible that the nav data on your sim installation is corrupt/missing. Before doing a full reinstall you might want to try this:

1. Make sure MSFS is shut down, not running.
2. Find your MSFS "Official" folder.
3. Find the "fs-base-nav" folder.
4. Delete the "fs-base-nav" folder and all its contents.
5. Start MSFS. It should see that the folder is missing and automatically download it.

Good luck!

...jim

 

@Jim Thank you for your idea. Just wondering if the problem is with Navigraph. I am reinstalling so I will check this out.

On 6/28/2021 at 6:52 AM, eslader said:

You're technically only supposed to request a "practice ILS" if you have an instructor on board who is conducting training with you. Otherwise, you request a straight-in approach, noting that you intend to fly the ILS down, and the tower can either approve the straight in approach or not. Works out to the same result, but some get sticky about the terminology used.

h

IRL you don't have to file IFR or have CFII to practice ILS approaches. You can request "practice ILS approaches" and do it in VFR condition under VFR rules and without instrument  rating

 

Also I want to add that certain ATC facilities have certain set rule that applies to specific area. What could be OK with facilities couldn't be ok with another

Edited June 29, 20214 yr by sd_flyer

One approach that I used to practice in real life at KPWM, is a no gyro approach.

The tower really liked doing this as it trained the controller as well. I have not requested this for years now but I used to do it a lot back in the 90's.

A no gyro approach is if you lost your vacuum instruments in a GA aircraft w/o electric b/u horizon. You use the T&B to make standard rate turns.

Controller puts you on a private frequency, so you don't tie up tower freq.

He will give you instructions like turn right ------ stop turn ----- descend to 1200' ----- turn left ----- stop turn. By using standard rate turns controller can calculate your angle of turn 3º per second. So 10 seconds 30º. And he steps you down as you approach the threshold.

Some controllers put you right at the end of the runway with PAPI's perfect, others can have you off quite a bit. It is fun to do, with a safety pilot of course if you use a hood or hood glasses.

I have done these types of approaches on the sim with a fellow pilot taking turns being PIC or Controller. We use Navigraph on a laptop for the controller, you can overlay an ILS or whatever approach on a Navigraph chart, so your view is very much like a controller would have. Using AiManager to block out most instruments this can be very realistic and fun, for both of you.