Lining Up With Runway

[wmjrod]

During approach, ATC will give me headings for lining up with the runway but it is not very accuracte and still requires to to do a lot of lining up manually.

I was wondering if there is a better way to line up with the runway than merely listening to ATC. I edit my flight plan to line up with a runway before the flight, but sometimes that is not the appropriate runway for landing and I am again stuck listening to ATC. I know you can enter the heading of the selected runway into your NAV1 but I can't figure out how to make the aircraft line up with that heading. When I press the NAV1 button, all i hear is beeping and the aircraft stays on regular course. I fly on GPS setting with NAV hold ON.

Any help would be appreciated!

[abrussell]

Look in the Learning center for Instrument Pilot, lesson 2:The ILS Approach.
Bruce

[mrzippy]

It might be time to study the lessons on GPS navigation. Have you tried ILS yet? It's good for the airline type aircraft and if done right it will guide you right onto the runway. How's that 767 doing?

[vsiccjoeluk]

did you select the APPR button when the ATC lines you up to 30 degrees of the Runway Heading?

[fxsttcb]

I fly on GPS setting with NAV hold ON

That will get you to the approach area, then you should be vectored to capture the ILS via ATC instruction.
Once ATC gives you a Heading to follow verify these things:
Nav/GPS switch to Nav.
1500-2500ft AGL(Above Ground Level).
Properly tuned Nav 1 radio.
Aircraft positioned and at a heading to intercept(cross) the ILS, ~5-10nm out, depending on Alt AGL.
You can use Nav Hold to track the Localizer even if the Glideslope isn't active yet.
On VOR1/HSI when the glideslope bug becomes active(you should be below it) engage Approach Hold.
At Decision Height; disengage App Hold, kill the AP, and Autothrottle(if equipped) to finish the landing manually...Don

[wmjrod]

I will run through ILS landing procedures again, more than likely I'm forgetting to use the APPR Hold button (stupid mistake). Thanks for the reminder! Zippy, I've been having problems adding aircraft. I installed SP2 and is working fine, but I made the mistake of adding textures or something and REPLACED some files and messed everything up. One time, I added a few aircraft and they were working fine until I might have replaced a file or did something wrong, and messed up the aircraft views. I couldn't view my GPS, gauges, or anything! Not ever for default aircraft! So, I had to reinstall and have SP1 currently installed and will install SP2 again later today. As of now everything is working fine and I have no added any aircraft since reinstallation. I don't want to have problems every time I add aircraft..

[vcomark]

You don't mention which aircraft you're flying????
I've always hand flown every approach I've ever made, from microlites upto 747's. That was how I was taught in the real world, although I'm not a commercial pilot, just PPL.
Try something small like the 172: make contact with the tower at about 30 miles, get your runway and plot a heading for the runway end you want. Look at the GPS to help you plot the heading. Aim for a point roughly 10 miles from the end of the runway and about 5 miles back in the direction you are coming from. Then turn to runway landing heading plus or minus 90deg, depending on whether it is to your left or right. Keep looking out the window at the runway, and watch for it coming up. Then make your 90 deg turn and line yourself up. The slower you go, the tighter the turn.
This is just the basics, and not a hard rule. Once you get used to handling, you can shorten the distances involved, and make sharper or less acute turns. But until you master the basics, keep it simple.
Oh - don't use full flight plans at this stage either: just use ATC for your landing approach, not before. Stay in free flight up till then. You don't even need to use ATC - just pick a quiet runway you like and practice doing race track circuits in a series of 90deg turns. You can still use the GPS on NAV to get to your chosen field. What you are hearing from ATC is just the same thing, except they are choosing your approach heading, not you. Until you get the hang of this, keep it 90deg.
I'm no expert, but like I said, this is how I was taught, in a Piper Cherokee.
Practice, practice, practice, I'm afraid..........
Good luck.

[wmjrod]

Thanks for the information mark. I've only just now started, maybe about 2 weeks ago, and am continuing to practice as much as possible. I will take your advice into action and keep it in mind while I practice.

[jeroen79]

You can use instruments like ILS, VOR, LOC, NDB or GPS to approach the runway.
You need to learn how each works and wether you can use them is dependent on the navaids available.

When you find that the vectors from ATC are insufficient then another option is use the GPS as a radarscope so that you can give yourself better vectors.

If you want to improve your skills for a visual approach then you should start flying simple circuits with a slow aircraft.
As you get better you can fly further away from the airfield and return to it.
Eventually you can move on to faster aircraft.