9 hours ago, SayAgain said:

Anyone else also noticed the PAPI lights seem to be wrong for majority of airports?  In most cases if I stuck to the PAPI lights I would probably land half way down the runway.

yes.  This is a major annoyance for me.  Not to mention some of the payware airports having glideslopes that are off.  I don't miss much about p3d.  But I do miss never having to 2nd guess these things 

3 hours ago, LRBS said:

Very interesting. Over all these years of flying all around the world, I have never, ever picked up an ILS signal at 100 NM out, even in flat terrain. I don't understand where people are getting this information. When it comes to signals, a VOR can vary by as much as 130 NM, but the typical range for an ILS is 25-30 NM. However, I do agree with him that, based on what I've observed in MSFS2020/2024, the ILS signals are quite off, starting at about 14 NM. This is another area that needs improvement, which reinforces my point that they really need qualified pilot consultants.  

I realize that the operational range of the localizer signal is only 18 to 25 nautical miles. Out of curiosity, what is the maximum range you have ever noted? Was it an approach to a runway located close to an ocean?

1 hour ago, falcon71 said:

Are you not using Navigraph? They improved the localizer ranges a while ago and your numbers match theirs:

https://navigraph.com/blog/localizerranges

Very interesting! Navigraph says some airports have a localizer range of 36 to 60 nautical miles. 

Directional beacons are affected by orography and other obstacles.

MS FLIGHT tried to implement the effect of a mountain between an aircraft and a non-doppler VOR, LOC, GS, in the Hawaii scenery, and it worked more or less acceptably and was a forst time MSFS feature.

Nowadays the navigation is all moving towards "satellite-based" so this is less of a must have feature, and I will not even mention NDBs...

I remember the ILS LOC on the westerly runways at KLAX has or at least had a supernatural range.
I remember going in there for the first time during line training in the 90’s and the training captain saying to me that they’ve go an ILS on steroids!

5 hours ago, sd_flyer said:

Normal service localizer range is 18 nm anything beyond  could be false localizer or false glideslope signal. 

The best I've seen or recall, as Jon just mentioned, like LAX, SFO,DXB, SYD, PVG, where the service volume for ILS signal is certified for extended range, somewhere from normal 18 to 30 nm.

6 hours ago, falcon71 said:

Are you not using Navigraph? They improved the localizer ranges a while ago and your numbers match theirs:

I did not know this.  I'm a Navigraph user, so this explains why the ILS comments had me shaking my head and asking, "what is he talking about?".

As for the ground friction issue - yep.  That one resonates.  Note that I have no trouble taxiing with proper curves on my rudder pedals - it's just that the behavior doesn't feel realistic and the issue is exaggerated in strong crosswinds.

 

Scott 

5 hours ago, alanw2005 said:

I realize that the operational range of the localizer signal is only 18 to 25 nautical miles. Out of curiosity, what is the maximum range you have ever noted? Was it an approach to a runway located close to an ocean?

Yes, I tried KJFK, KLAX, OMDB, OMAA, RCTP, YSSY, and a few more.

4 hours ago, jon b said:

I remember the ILS LOC on the westerly runways at KLAX has or at least had a supernatural range.
I remember going in there for the first time during line training in the 90’s and the training captain saying to me that they’ve go an ILS on steroids!

An ILS transmitter wattage is between 5 watts and 25 watts. A marine radio with a 25 watt transmitter has a range of 60 NM on open water. ILS frequencies are a lower MHZ than a marine radio, meaning a greater range for a given wattage.

So with the ILS transmitter operating at maximum wattage, an ocean approach with no obstacles blocking the line of sight to the runway, a high altitude and some line of sight propagation, 100 NM should be possible under the right circumstances. 

But would you trust the aircraft to follow an ILS signal from 100 NM out? Sounds dangerous to me. Just flying a heading to a waypoint. 

To get back to the video pilot's comments about ILS, I believe what he is saying is that the MSFS 2024 ILS LOC operational range is less than the expected certified minimums.  So maybe he is observing that he is not intercepting the LOC until 10 NM out instead of 18 NM?

17 hours ago, sd_flyer said:

We have airline pilots on this forum at all times who give very valuable feed back all the time.  

By the way, "I'm real blah blah blah" pilot sounds pretty ridiculous! What are there "unreal airbus pilots" as well? LOL Imagine someone goes to an airline interview and says "I'm real airbus pilot"! Wow ! No way! Amazing! LOL 

I think the distinction is made to not to be confused with the many people that are Sim Pilots only, who have authoritative Youtube channels or blogs, who are even audacious enough to call themselves Captain. Sometimes you have to dig deep to find out the person has no qualifications at all. 

12 hours ago, Krakin said:

I saw that video yesterday and it looks like it's solely about 2020. There's more evidence of this in some of the comments. As we know, 2020 has some ground physics enhancements but 2024 has more. Just something to keep in mind.

Yup exactly, after watching it a couple of times, it definitely does look like he's using 2020. Also the aircraft appear to be an MD-11 (TFDi?) and a 777 (PMDG?), so it comes to down how those aircraft have implemented ground handling physics and whatever features they're making use of in 2020, or not.

FWIW, PMDG did speak to 2024's new ground handling system on a recent forum thread over there, about for example the upcoming 2024 version of the 737: https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/pmdg-737-for-msfs/general-discussion-no-support/373022-ground-handling?pp=373118#post373119 
"The 737's ground handling is markedly better with the new FS2024 system."

Given the evolution and addition of ground/flight dynamics features over time in both 2020 and 2024, Asobo's goal is to not break existing aircraft hand-tuned to whatever was available at the time of development.. so all aircraft don't automatically benefit from all the features once they're available in the sim, and aircraft devs have to specifically opt-in and modify their aircraft code and FM/ground models. That said, I really wish Asobo would at least update as much of the default fleet as possible to make use of these new features, rather than just the C172 and couple of other reference GA birds they manage to keep updated with the latest and greatest.
 

Edited November 3, 2025Nov 3 by lwt1971

22 hours ago, andy1252 said:

Noel, have messed around with these settings in the past, to no great effect. I'll have another play later this evening and see how that goes.

Here you go, a video I just made showing taxi in the Fenix 320.  Are you using pedals for rudder?  If so I can imagine dialing in the right sensitivity would be a big challenge over the trim wheel I use

 

17 minutes ago, Noel said:

Here you go, a video I just made showing taxi in the Fenix 320.  Are you using pedals for rudder?  If so I can imagine dialing in the right sensitivity would be a big challenge over the trim wheel I use

 

Colors look great.

15 minutes ago, Noel said:

Here you go, a video I just made showing taxi in the Fenix 320.  Are you using pedals for rudder?  If so I can imagine dialing in the right sensitivity would be a big challenge over the trim wheel I use

Thanks Noel. Yes, getting the correct setup using my CH Pro pedals has eluded me in the past. Way too reactive whatever I seem to do. BUT, the same pedals are absolutely fine in t'other sims so there's definitely something about MSFS's behaviour in this area. Anyway, I will experiment again, but busy with other sim stuff right now. I'll let you know if I manage to sort it out.

On 11/2/2025 at 4:16 AM, Noel said:

That comment is so foreign to my multiple thousands of hours of MSFS 2020/24 I'm assuming you're being dramatic.  Taxiing is pure smoothness here and always has been.

You gotta watch the video…?

And let’s not forget that ground handling has only recently improved, and only for a subset of aircraft.