Wrong To-From indication

Greetings

Please correct me if I'm wrong.On a localizer backcourse the To-From indicator should display a " From ".It displays a " To ".I tried different airplanes at various locations,it always displays " To ".Is this normal or just another FSX bug?If so,how can it be corrected?All ideas,opinions,suggestions welcomed.

Thanks,jmarzo.

The To-From indication on a localizer, back course or not, is immaterial. The needle indication is, of course, reversed from that shown on the front course, but when you tune in a localizer the NAV receiver changes to a different mode which is four times as sensitive as when in the VOR mode and which ignores the OBS and To-From indications. That's why you won't find a localizer on a VOR freq or a VOR on a localizer freq. It's built in to the radio.

So consider it "normal" operation.

This post was inadvertently entered when what appeared to be a system hang caused such delay that I reposted. Sorry.

It could stand to be deleted.

Hi Inuss,

Thank you for the reply.I'm somewhat surprised we don't have a positive means of situating ourselves on the localizer,the frontcourse as opposed to the backcourse.CDI indications alone are not adequate for this purpose.Inbound on the front course and outbound on the back course we have normal sensing.Conversely inbound on the backcourse and outbound on the frontcourse we have reverse sensing.So how do we tell for certain where we are,frontcouse or backcouse?In the case of an ILS, the lack of glideslope information tells me I'm on the backcourse,but if it's a localizer only approach things can get very confusing.

jmarzo.

Hi Inuss,

 

jmarzo.

Larry, I think it's time to use Capital letters! lower case L for Larry not upper case I;)

Sorry for being the "spelling nazi"! I'd rather be the "soup nazi"! NO SOUP FOR YOU!

Thanks, Zip. it's not usually that big a deal, though, but once in a while...

Thank you for the reply.I'm somewhat surprised we don't have a positive means of situating ourselves on the localizer,the frontcourse as opposed to the backcourse.

Well, if you know the runway heading, and you know your own heading, I think you can figure it out. I suspect that the localizer wasn't originally designed for a back course -- it was primarily to go with a glide slope, but the additional capabilities got into use before too long, it seems. The ILS was developed even before WW II, long before there were VORs, which is part of the reason that there is a mode switch when going to localizer freqs. From Wikipedia: "The first landing of a scheduled U.S. passenger airliner using ILS was on January 26, 1938..." and it had been under development as early as 1929.

In real life, you don't shoot an ILS without an approach plate and a clearance, and without using other navaids to get into position to intercept the localizer. So if you need something to say, "Hey dummy, this is the backcourse." then you'll need to develop your own. Of course you can always use the GPS to be sure you're where you belong before starting the approach.

You might find this Wikipedia article interesting. It even points out that with more recent antenna arrays that a backcourse isn't possible, since it was only poor antenna design that originally allowed the back course to be developed in the first place. There are also this Wiki article about the localizer and this one about the glide path.

It's also possible you may find this Wiki article about approach plates (approach procedure charts) helpful. In addition, this web page gets you to a selection of FAA handbooks that you can download for free, including the Instrument Flying Handbook.

Questions like yours are part (but only part) of the reason that it takes intensive training to get an instrument rating in real life, a minimum of 40 hours (disregarding part 141, for now) of flying time plus a lot of ground study time.