Grotius

So I had more practice today, flying into Kenai Muni (PAEN) in Alaska. I tuned its localizer, 108.9, but in my glass cockpit, it showed up only as a VOR. I never saw the glide slope indicator, even though I approached at the proper altitude. I landed fine, but I was disappointed I didn't get to follow the glide slope down. Anyone know why it didn't show? Maybe "localizer" doesn't necessarily imply glide slope too?

Thanks for the educational responses. I've been practicing. As I mentioned in my second post in this thread, I watched a Youtuber do an IFR flight from KFOK to KGON (Long Island to Groton), and he did it without autopilot (but also without ATC). So I replicated his flight -- IFR, many low clouds, no auto-pilot -- except I kept the ATC on. I managed the first couple legs surprisingly well, but ATC did not give me the ILS approach I was expecting, and I couldn't find the waypoint they assigned for me on Skyvector, so I had to ask them for vectors several times. I eventually found the waypoint and landed safely. It was very satisfying. But I need a lot more practice. I tried again, this time from Cincinnati to a nearby municipal airport, and all went well -- until I reached down to fuss with the mixture, took too long, and put the plane in a spiral that caused too much stress on the aircraft. (I had that realism setting on, which is all well and good, except that it cost me a Flight Sim Economy fare!) End of flight. Also, I can trim the aircraft to hold its altitude pretty well now. But horizontal trim is another matter. No matter what I do, the aircraft wants to roll slightly right or left. I try adding aileron trim, but that just delays an inevitable roll one way or the other. Maybe I should add more of a deadzone to my Saitek yoke?

I agree with Vern -- MSFS2020 has spectacular default scenery that is miles better than the default scenery in X-Plane or FSX. (I haven't played Prepar3D). Sure, the ATC is not perfect -- no AI system will ever be as good as the live controllers on PilotEdge, say. But it's a big step forward, and I really enjoy using it. And MSFS runs smoothly for me with an old CPU and a GTX980, on Medium settings. (I can do High in less dense areas, but I get lag at places like JFK.) I don't miss X-Plane at all.

Thanks, Hal! Just the kind of reply I was looking for. After I posted, I found a video of a guy doing exactly this in a C152. This guy is a real pilot, and (not surprisingly) he's a much better sim pilot than me. He got angry with himself for being 50 feet above his self-assigned altitude.

Hi all. I'm not a pilot in RL, though I've enjoyed being a passenger in GA aircraft as well as jetliners. I have a newb question. Can one fly IFR without ever using autopilot? Must some of it (e.g., the localizer portion) be done with autopilot on? I imagine flying by hand is more feasible in a slow aircraft like a C172 than a jet. Even in a slow aircraft, I find I have my hands full switching NAV and COM frequencies, managing ATC, staying on course, etc. MSFS makes some of this easier by tuning ATC frequencies automatically for us. (Can I disable this feature?) But still, I find things happen very fast in departure and arrival procedures. I ask because I like hand-flying the plane, and because I hear the autopilot in MSFS20 is a bit buggy. (I wouldn't know -- I haven't tried it yet in 10 hours of flying, heh.) Thanks in advance.

Thanks, guys! That's helpful.

I'm enjoying the sim a lot, and I'm gradually adding realism features. But I'm not sure I understand the UI for engine failures and the like. There's an option to enable such failures, and then below that another option that can be changed to "armed." What does "armed" mean? Thanks in advance!