PilotBobUK Posted March 10 Share Posted March 10 Hi all, having re-installed my FSX due to a HD failure, into a clean Win 7 system using i7 3770 and GTX970 I'm delighted with how the aircraft fly. However I want to be able to use it for instrument training and have tried to fly the ILS into LYDD (EGMD) This requires ADF and DME as the initial approach is a 14m DME arc at 3200ft until intercepting the Localizer. I set the ILS frequency on Nav 1 to LYDD ILS (108.15) and DME to R1. The DME shows no didtance to the beacon. If I set DET (117.30) on Nav 2 then select R2 on the DME it works perfectly. It just stubbornly refuses to pickup the ILS distance, which makes flying the proceedure impossible. Any ideas what's happening? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianhr Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 Does your Lydd ILS have associated DME? Not all do. In my P3D/ORBX scenery I have a DME, but that may not be true for you. Have you checked that your Nav 1 shows distance from other VORs? [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lnuss Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 2 hours ago, ianhr said: Does your Lydd ILS have associated DME? Not all do. In my P3D/ORBX scenery I have a DME, but that may not be true for you. Have you checked that your Nav 1 shows distance from other VORs? Yes it does- in fact one of the charts uses a DME arc, as the OP mentioned. Lots of info, including approach plates, here: https://airwaymap.com/airport/EGMD/charts Bob, have you tried setting DET (117.30) on Nav 1 then select R1 on the DME to see what happens, or setting Nav 2 to LYDD ILS (108.15) and DME to R2? Doing both should tell you whether the NAV 1 connection to DME is working properly. And have you tried an ILS/DME at another airport with both NAVs? For that matter, have you tried setting a VORTAC or VOR/DME into NAV 1 to see if the DME works? If NAV 1's connection to DME doesn't work in any of the above, the problem might be in the aircraft.cfg file in the radio section. You don't mention which aircraft you're using- perhaps try a different aircraft. Get back to us after the above troubleshooting is done if that doesn't help you solve the problem. Larry N. As Skylab would say: Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PilotBobUK Posted March 12 Author Share Posted March 12 Thanks guys, to answer a couple of questions, Lydd does have a co-located DME coupled to the ILS frequency. I have a print of an approach I did some while ago using FSX before the HD failure which clearly shows the 14DME arc was flown, so I'm sure it was working before. I have tried setting another VOR (DET) on Nav 1 and distance is then shown properly. I also tried an approach to Southend, unfortunately it wouldn't lock on to the localizer there either. I am using the Carenado PA28 but have also tried the stock 172 with the same results. I will have a look at the aircraft.cfg file to see if anything is obvious but I think I'll probably be out of my depth there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lnuss Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 1 hour ago, PilotBobUK said: I also tried an approach to Southend, unfortunately it wouldn't lock on to the localizer there either. You didn't mention a problem in your first post about locking onto the localizer, only about the DME not registering a distance. Not locking onto the localizer indicates that you cannot get a left/right needle indication and cannot navigate using the localizer at all. Or perhaps you are thinking of them a bit differently than what is there. In real life the DME is a separate device, copied from the military TACAN (Tactical Navigation) and is even on a different frequency band, than the VOR/ILS of NAV radios, so it has a separate receiver for the DME. But the DME receiver receives tuning information from the NAV radio and the design is such that the TACAN channel for the DME is slaved to the various VOR and DME frequencies, such that for i-LYDD the DME tunes to Channel 18Y. The only reason I'm bringing this up is to be sure that we don't have a confusion in our communications. In the Radios section of the aircraft.cfg there are parameters you can choose. The Carenado Baron 58 has this: //------------------------------------------------------------- [Radios] // Radio Type=available, standby frequency, has glide slope Audio.1 = 1 Com.1 = 1, 1 Com.2 = 1, 1 Nav.1 = 1, 1, 1 Nav.2 = 1, 1, 1 Adf.1 = 1 Transponder.1 = 1 Marker.1 = 1 and its ILS/DME works fine. Note the Radio Type help for the three fields behind the comment (comment is depicted by // before it). If the problem is consistent across several aircraft it may be an error in the scenery design, so if it's an add-on scenery temporarily disable that scenery and see if the problem persists. Larry N. As Skylab would say: Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PilotBobUK Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 Thanks guys, to answer a couple of questions, Lydd does have a co-located DME coupled to the ILS frequency. I have a print of an approach I did some while ago using FSX before the HD failure which clearly shows the 14DME arc was flown, so I'm sure it was working before. I have tried setting another VOR (DET) on Nav 1 and distance is then shown properly. I also tried an approach to Southend, unfortunately it wouldn't lock on to the localizer there either. I am using the Carenado PA28 but have also tried the stock 172 with the same results. I will have a look at the aircraft.cfg file to see if anything is obvious but I think I'll probably be out of my depth there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PilotBobUK Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 Well guys, thank you for your willingness to assist but I think I'm just gonna give up on FSX. I've tried everything I can think of including looking at the various .cfg files and altering one or two settings there all to no avail. So I tried uninstalling "Acceleration" and my VFR scenery files then FSX, then deleting the FSX folder. Then I re-installed FSX on it's own. Now I can get the ILS/Loc and DME to work at Lydd but attempting to fly the approach via the 14DME arc was fine until it came to intercepting the localiser. The aircraft flew straight through it with not so much as a flicker of the Localiser needle. It's all just so frustrating getting one thing to work then another seems to fall over. Maybe I'll try MSFS2020 when I can raise a few more beer vouchers to buy it, or should I wait for 2024 to be released? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrzippy Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 You may want to do a whole lot of reading through the MSFS 2020 forums here and maybe over at AVSIM.com. If you think you are having problems with FSX, you are in for a real treat with everything going on with the newer Sim. Still thinking about a new flightsim only computer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PilotBobUK Posted March 13 Author Share Posted March 13 16 minutes ago, mrzippy said: You may want to do a whole lot of reading through the MSFS 2020 forums here and maybe over at AVSIM.com. If you think you are having problems with FSX, you are in for a real treat with everything going on with the newer Sim. Hmmm, that's kinda what I was afraid of 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lnuss Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 1 hour ago, PilotBobUK said: The aircraft flew straight through it with not so much as a flicker of the Localiser needle. OK, one more thing. I just fired up FSX for the first time in years (I use P3D) and sitting on the ground when I tune 108.15 I get no morse ID on that freq, no needle movement slewing side to side (should move with the aircraft that close to the localizer) and no other indication of any kind. Even the built in map doesn't show any indication of an ILS at that airport. So my conclusion is that the ILS was not installed at that airport in the roughly 2005 time frame (almost 20 years ago) when the FSX database was created. And it's certain that there are many, many other places and items that have changed in the last ~20 years, too, so it's unlikely that many approach charts are accurate today for FSX- real world changes are posted on NOTAMS and the changes on charts are reissued (in the US, at least) every 56 days. So perhaps you could find an add-on scenery that contains that ILS, but otherwise that particular one isn't available to you. You can fly other airports, however, and still get some valuable practice. Larry N. As Skylab would say: Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrzippy Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 https://secure.simmarket.com/sxairportdesign-lydd-x.phtml It has an offset ILS mentioned in the description. 1 Still thinking about a new flightsim only computer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lnuss Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 Nice find Zippy- and for 9 Euros it's not a bank breaker either. And it's offset ILS seems to match the approach plates. 1 Larry N. As Skylab would say: Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flapman Posted March 13 Share Posted March 13 Just because, in 2024, I-LDY has a DME transmitter doesn't necessarily mean that it did in 2004 (or whatever the date is of the FSX navigation data). You have mentioned several times, even referencing real approach charts, to the I-LDY DME, but have you looked at the navigation station inside of FSX itself to see if it has DME coded? I bet it doesn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PilotBobUK Posted March 14 Author Share Posted March 14 Hi Guys, thanks to the various replies I've had to this post I now understand how this works to a far better degree than before. I hadn't realised the nav aid data was contained in the scenery files, that accounts for the original installation using a nav aid database dated around 2004. At that time Lydd did have a DME and NDB but no ILS. I came across a program (World FSXP3D package https://www.aero.sors.fr/navaids3.html) which updates the nav aid database to the latest airac cycle. After running this, FSX now has up to date nav aids including Lydd and Southend. I've been able to successfully fly a full instrument approach into both airports without a hitch. (Nil wind you understand ) So I'm back up and running, now I just need to tune the controls a litle bit to make things more realistic but delighted to have finally got somewhere at last. Thanks again to everyone for your input. I wonder if my instructor would accept a printout of the flight analysis in order to sign off the approach? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lnuss Posted March 14 Share Posted March 14 Glad you found a solution, Bob. 4 hours ago, PilotBobUK said: I wonder if my instructor would accept a printout of the flight analysis in order to sign off the approach? Hmmm... Larry N. As Skylab would say: Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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