Hello, I have a question relating to the CoPilot handling of a Back Course approach to a runway. The flight was from Miami, KMIA, to Simon Bolivar Int, SVMI, leaving Miami at 5:30 PM. The arrival at SVMI was close to the target time of 8:35 PM. It indeed was dark when we approached SVMI. Now my question. ATC directed the CoPilot to R27 and she complied with ATC in that the downwind leg was to the North of the airport. North was great because it was over the ocean. The CoPilot was then directed to turn to intercept R27. All was going fine until she intercepted the Localizer. As R27 at SVMI is a Back-Course Localizer, no GS, I was curious if the aircraft would lock on. Lo and behold when it was time to enable the BC AP the CoPilot simply enabled the APP and in doing so the aircraft attempted to adjust its course to 94, the magnetic course for R9. This ended up in a disaster as the aircraft slammed right into the mountains. Thus, can you tell me if the RC CoPilot is designed to handle a Localizer-only Back-Course approach? I couldn't find anything in the literature that made reference to Back-Course approaches.Thanks

Blais,Otto doesn't know a LOC-BC approach from a hole in the sky. All it knows is how to click the buttons on the AP.There are two things to do here.1) Fly it yourself.2) Take the Localizer Back-courses's out of the database, re-export the plan, recompile. Then RC won't even assign it.When you export the Nav or FSNav plan to RC, it simply puts a runway with a frequency. It doesn't have any information as to whether or not it's ILS or LOC-BC. That's why you need to know that. If you leave the LOC-BC's in, then you need to remember which runways are LOC-BC, and take control on base. If you don't, then, well, you know what happens.If you're using FSNav, then you simply turn off LOC-BC's from the display menu, then export to RC. I forget what you do from Nav, but it's in the info somewhere.

Hi Scott, I really didn't see how OTTO, what a name for a top-notch CoPilot, could set up for a back-course approach. No big deal. In the future I simply will take over on the downwind when the situation demands it. I do use FSNav and I am curious about the feature you've mentioned. For curiosity I will take a look-see. In the words of Chief Joseph, from where I stand there is no problem.Thanks Scott

Hi Blais, Pretty funny calling our Co-Pilot "OTTO", when Otto's had a female voice for eons now. :-) Still, it just sounds right. :-lolI'm flying with Ver 3 but it's just the same in ver 2.2 If I allow Otto to fly in Approach airspace at all, I take back the plane after Otto turns me to the localizer intercept heading. Plenty of time set the AP's BC app mode.Best, Rob

Rob,I don't think it's specified anywhere as to whether Otto is a FIRST name or a LAST name! ;-)So I guess our beloved Co-Pilots could well be a Miss/Ms./Mrs. Otto! :7:-waveMike Chttp://www.jdtllc.com/images/RCbeta.jpg