ILS Training ?

I am trying to learn how to land using ILS. What does the instrument that I must use look like, must it be turned on manually, and can you recommend a good plane to start with ?

Jim

I am trying to learn how to land using ILS. What does the instrument that I must use look like, must it be turned on manually, and can you recommend a good plane to start with ?

 

 

Jim

You can use the standard fsx Cessna 172. If you use the one which has the glass cockpit the instrument is on the pfd. Press the CDI soft button at the bottom of the pfd so that VOR1 shows then tune your Nav1 to the ils frequency. Once you are in range you will see a broken line on the Vor1 instrument just like if you were using the gps. Also you will see a tape next to it which shows the glideslope. If the green diamond is shown at the top of the tape you are too low. If it shows at the bottom you are too high.

Good luck

Stinger

Sent from my SM-T813 using Tapatalk

I am trying to learn how to land using ILS. What does the instrument that I must use look like, must it be turned on manually, and can you recommend a good plane to start with?

 

 

Jim

All these questions, and more, are answered in the FSX Learning Center.

Start with that.

If not in the glass cockpit then the VOR1 gauge will look like this:

Hi Jim - Take in all that has been suggested so far. There are also some good videos on YouTube on ILS landings, both small aircraft and large! Once you get the ILS landings down, you will wonder why you didn't learn them earlier!

Happy flying and good luck! - Rick

Stinger, I am lost and ready to give up. I can't find a pdf, CDI soft button, or VOR1 anywhere. I am a lost soul and will be flying recklessly without ILS forever. I cannot get those needles to move no how. I am doomed ! :(

Jim

Jim - Don't give up so easily! I don't know where you live and don't know if you have access to YouTube videos? There are plenty on there and are easier to follow, rather than any of us trying to explain it to you! Do a search in YouTube Cessna 172 ILS approach and landing. Also, do a google search, on the same and there are lots of articles, but illustration/pictures are lacking!

Hang in there, you'll get it. Take notes, if you later find you don't understand your own notes, go back to the video and watch it again, as many times it takes to sink in!

Don't give up! You can do it! - Rick

Good luck! - Rick

Jim

Get a hold of yourself. Don't jump yet, regain control and land.

Cheers,

Hi Jim - Take in all that has been suggested so far. There are also some good videos on YouTube on ILS landings, both small aircraft and large! Once you get the ILS landings down, you will wonder why you didn't learn them earlier!

 

Happy flying and good luck! - Rick

Did you change the NAV/GPS switch to NAV? Without that the VOR/ILS stuff doesn't work.

Did you change the NAV/GPS switch to NAV? Without that the VOR/ILS stuff doesn't work.

AND...

Did you tune your NAV1 radio to the runway's ILS frequency? You can find it on the approach plates for that airport, I use Skyvector.com myself for the approach charts, VFR charts, all of that. Or go to the Menu Bar at the top of the screen, and click World>Map. Every airport has the ILS for the different runways listed, if any, as well as the runway's heading.

Once you've done that, and set your Course (OBS) to the runway's heading, try flying around the airport at about 1200' AGL. Not MSL, AGL! Make a complete circle all the way around the airport so you can see how it looks from different angles. And so you don't get surprized by a hill, or a radio tower or something.

When you get within about 15° of the approach end of the runway, about 2-4 miles out, you will see your ILS instruments come alive.

Whatever kind of instrument you have decided to use for your ILS training, they all will have a couple things in common. They all will have some sort of vertical indication, either along the sides going up and down, or, as in Zippy's picture, a horizontal bar that moves up and down. Another thing they will all have is a way to indicate your horizontal position relative to the runway. A bar across the bottom of instrument with a marker of some sort on it that move left/right, or, again like Zippy's, a vertical bar that will swing side to side.

As you get closer to the runway heading, suddenly the instrument will come alive, and the indications will show you where you are in space, relative to the runway. Are you left of the runway? The indicator will show you that. Are you above the glideslope? The arrow, or bar, will show below the center of it's throw. What YOU want to do is fly the plane so the two indications stay in the center of the instruments.

Just keep at it. You will learn quickly what you need to do to correct different conditions. Too high, drop off some power, Slide a little left, if you need. It's a lot of fun. And DON'T let the autopilot fly the plane!! Hand fly ONLY, or you won't learn anything. Once you KNOW how to make an ILS landing by hand, then you can consider some push-button flying. But heck, what's the fun in that??

I am going to presume you can already land an airplane, so we won't go into all THAT fun stuff!

Have fun!

Pat☺

Stinger, I am lost and ready to give up. I can't find a pdf, CDI soft button, or VOR1 anywhere. I am a lost soul and will be flying recklessly without ILS forever. I cannot get those needles to move no how. I am doomed ! :(

 

 

Jim

The PFD (primary flight display) is the left hand display in the C172 glass cockpit. The cdi soft button is in the middle of that display at the bottom. There is a circular instrument at the bottom of the pfd window which is a multi purpose instrument which will show as Vor1 when you click the cdi soft button(you can click this again to change the function if this instrument). Once you have that showing you can tune your nav1 radio to the ils frequency.

Cheers Stinger

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Here's a good video, the author places more emphasis on the GPS and not the autopilot. I would have had the ILS approach frequecy on NAV1 already set, set the ILS heading with the OBS, have the autopilot on and then prior to intercept, click on APR. That way the aircraft will make the turn automatically for you, and you can see what the ILS can do for you. Just starting out, it does take a lot of work out of getting familiar with the ILS approach to landings! Plenty of time to practice both manual and autopilot methods! Don't forget if you should be in a GPS mode, you have to go over to NAV for ILS to work. Try it both ways, autopilot and manual, see what works best for you! Enjoy! - Rick

Thanks for all of your help guys, I understand what I must do now, and will keep working on it.

Jim

set the ILS heading with the OBS,

This (the OBS) accomplishes nothing for the ILS, though you may use it as a reminder for you, if you wish, of what the course should be. But the receiver aligns on the localizer signal, which is a relatively narrow beam, not needing the radial resolving circuitry -- it's a different internal operation.

I made this video last year on the ILS. It may or may not be very helpful.

Bryan - Excellent video! You covered it all and easily understood! Jim, being a beginner at the ILS landings, might be a little intimidated by the aircraft and panel in your video. I feel much more at home looking at your aircraft and panel, than looking at the everyday C172 that he might be using, but we have been doing this for awhile. It will all come to him, eventually, and he'll be able to look at your video again and know everything you are saying, wondering why this took him awhile to grasp and understand! Good job Bryan!

Thanks for sharing! - Rick

Bryan - Excellent video! You covered it all and easily understood! Jim, being a beginner at the ILS landings, might be a little intimidated by the aircraft and panel in your video. I feel much more at home looking at your aircraft and panel, than looking at the everyday C172 that he might be using, but we have been doing this for awhile. It will all come to him, eventually, and he'll be able to look at your video again and know everything you are saying, wondering why this took him awhile to grasp and understand! Good job Bryan!

 

Thanks for sharing! - Rick

My real name is actually Aaron, but when G+ came along and I had YT troubles, I reluctantly did the G+ thing and thus my nice username of Agent Capture I created when YouTube first came out was no more, and now I don't think I can change it back. Truly asinine for Google to mess up my username and my nice YT channel that had a sectional as the background. I don't log into YT all that often and it's a pain when I never store cookies and have to log in and use two factor all the time.

I learned how to use the ILS and all the rest myself. Mostly just by experimenting and putting A with B. I have to laugh about how I figured out what ILS was. At first I wondered how in the world I can land in zero visibility or near zero. I was landing at KMOT and it was foggy and I thought there has to be a better way pilots do this. Then I discovered that when I entered the (what I called) the runway frequency into the Comm I could see a needle telling me to bank left or right. I was impressed. But I wondered what the other needle was for. Then it hit me a little latter on. "That must be for altitude corrections!" From that moment on flying in the Sim was a way different experience. And every time I made a low visibility landing it was a great reward. And I learned about it all myself. In fact, I started out in the Lear 45. I took off out of Seattle in FS2004 and just... learned. I was really impressed with FS2004 that I can go anywhere I wanted and the whole scenery changed. My first long distance flight was from KFNL to Las Vegas.

Then I discovered the PMDG 737 GOD! Oh what fun it was to learn the FMC and all that rot. I love complex things and technical stuff. I taught myself how to program the FMC and use SID and STARS.

I am trying to learn how to land using ILS. What does the instrument that I must use look like, must it be turned on manually, and can you recommend a good plane to start with ?

 

 

Jim

If you want some serious knowledge, check out the courses offered by VATSIM through their online school http://vatstar.com/

Sherm

If you want some serious knowledge, check out the courses offered by VATSIM through their online school http://vatstar.com/

 

Sherm

Well yes I just went to their site myself. That site seems way over the top in both knowledge and skill-set requirements for your average sim pilot to start out with. The lessons in the sim itself should do all this gentleman needs to know to fly approaches and then decide how much deeper he chooses to go. ;)

Later, should he really want to climb in and get much more serious as apparently CRJ has done, payware lessons might make sense.

Rupert

Well yes I just went to their site myself. That site seems way over the top in both knowledge and skill-set requirements for your average sim pilot to start out with. The lessons in the sim itself should do all this gentleman needs to know to fly approaches and then decide how much deeper he chooses to go. ;)

 

Later, should he really want to climb in and get much more serious as apparently CRJ has done, payware lessons might make sense.

 

Rupert

Hi Rupert,

You are correct, though I would not say VATSTAR is exactly over the top. Rather, it is thorough and does require some dedication. To be honest, I started a course but have not finished, though I may go back to it somewhere down the line. btw, VATSTAR is NOT PAYWARE. It is a completely free service just like VATSIM.

fwiw, here is a link to a basic tutorial

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/ils.htm&num=1&strip=1&vwsrc=0

Here is another link to a tutorial written by Charlie Wood, the founder of my Virtual Airline http://www.dc3airways.net. You can look around here for some articles that discuss more about navigation. And, of course, consider this a personal invitation to join up with a great group of virtual pilots

http://www.anaspides.net/documents/flight_simulator_documents/Instrument%20course.pdf

Sherm

Here's all the books you could ever want: http://www.flightsimbooks.com/

Enjoy the hobby! Read, read, and read, and learn. Then move onto VATSIM.

Guys and galls, even though navfltsm is offline, there's ways around that....;)

Here's an older snapshot of the site. Has all the basic ILS info.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170610130552/http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/ils.htm

Actually, read this section first:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170612223155/http://navfltsm.addr.com/gs.htm

Right within the Sim, the LEARNING CENTER has step by step training in how to do an ILS approach.

-Pv-