LOC deviation

[CRJ_simpilot]

Have you ever noticed that when you are flying in on a LOC and at about a mile from the threshold the LOC deviates left or right abruptly?

 

So I'm flying through the Polynesia Islands going to New Zealand and most islands there don't have and ILS or landing lights for that matter. I'm flying mostly at night or in the very early morning hours there. I have to use a couple of WAAS gauges in my F22. They provide an artificial ILS. I'm happily flying right on the LOC precisely and right at about a mile away from the runway the damn LOC deviates to the left or right. So I mess up the landing. To make matters worse it's night and I can't see the runway until about a mile or less away. Naturally, before I committed to touch down I should have went around, but I didn't want to. I landed on the edge of the runway, but it was a landing never the less.

 

This same LOC phenomena happens on an ILS. I fly the ILS manually and I'm precisely following the LOC adjusting my VS for the glideslope and at about a mile away the LOC goes left or right abruptly. To make matters worse some ILS's are not lined up with the runway. Such is the case at Venice Italy and I believe the Isle Of Man. Had I been in IMC it could have been a disaster. I always set my GPWS minimums to 100' so naturally if I didn't see the runway at that point I'd go around. But some of these ILS's are so off that could mean flying right into the side of a mountain.

 

FSX is just not as real as it should be. I had the same thing happen to me in FS2004.

[mabe5454]

As you get closer the LOC deviation changes from 5 degrees to 3 degrees accuracy. Normal.

 

Cheers,

[lnuss]

As you get closer the LOC deviation changes from 5 degrees to 3 degrees accuracy. Normal.

 

Cheers,

 

Not normal, at least in the real world. A VOR needle has you off course by 10º at full deflection, while a localizer needle has you off course by 2½º at full deflection. There is no sudden jump at one mile or anywhere else. And I'd certainly hate to encounter such a thing. Please fact check before posting.

 

In either case, of course, the closer you are to the station the closer you are to the course at a given deviation, since the needle represents degrees rather than distance.

[mabe5454]

Not normal, at least in the real world. A VOR needle has you off course by 10º at full deflection, while a localizer needle has you off course by 2½º at full deflection. There is no sudden jump at one mile or anywhere else. And I'd certainly hate to encounter such a thing. Please fact check before posting.

 

In either case, of course, the closer you are to the station the closer you are to the course at a given deviation, since the needle represents degrees rather than distance.

 

On the sim not the real world. Get it together.

[lnuss]

On the sim not the real world. Get it together.

Easy, Bud. I've never seen the described behavior in the sim either, or heard of it. And if it's there in the sim, since it's a bug I've never heard of before -- maybe it needs certain conditions I've not come across? Perhaps you can explain where this information about the sensitivity change comes from, since it's new to me and I've been using MS sims since 1998.

 

OK -- having written the above, I figured I should double check, so I flew the default Cessna 172 in FSX flying to the KBJC VOR (115.4) from the northwest, about 10 miles out, until station passage. Nary a twitch until station passage. So I went southeast of the field about 10 miles and flew the Jeffco localizer (111.7) until I lost the signal when about the northwest end of rwy 29 where I lost the signal -- again, nary a twitch.

 

So if you're seeing the indications described by CRJ, then you have some bug not normal to FSX. It doesn't happen for me.

 

If anyone else has seen this (or is certain it doesn't happen to them), please chime in.