Synthetic ILS instrument- For every Runway at every Airport

I have just Uploaded an instrument here at Flightsim that might be of interest to some .

 

FSX - FSX Utilities

FSX Synthetic ILS - For Every Runway At Every Airport

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Name: aila_ils.zip

Size: 2,829,541 Date: 08-31-2018 Downloads: 240

 

 

FSX Synthetic ILS - For Every Runway At Every Airport in the Flight Simulator database. Also for FS2004 and P3D. AILA - Airborne Instrument Landing Approach System. Instrument enables selection of any of the 24,491 airports that exist in the database, then selection of any runway at that airport, then selection of either runway end. Airports can be selected at any global distance from aircraft. Distance bearing and steering arrow are displayed, the ILS aim point is computed at 6% of relevant runway length and the ILS is full precision with usual ILS deviation bars. Text data includes current, glideslope, height above runway, distance to touchdown aimpoint, offset (circuit width) from runway centerline, full airport name and details, enables precise rectangular standard circuits to be flown, also enables an intercept position to be set at any desired distance prior to ILS aimpoint to easily align aircraft with the runway. Also includes mark position capture of any location on earth and generation of a synthetic runway, i.e., a paddock, a beach, a river, lake, sea, hardened rooftop or bridge, and subsequent ILS approach at that location. The default ILS glideslope is the usual 3.00 degrees but any angle can be set. Can be used in any aircraft, helicopter, cropduster, float plane, or fire fighting aircraft. 16 page notes PDF, an Airports ICAO PDF, and several descriptive screenshots. By Karol Chlebowski.

 

 

Its a Pop Up window instrument , I created in a military fast jet ( F-111 ) , but it can be used in any air vehicle , including

helicopters , or even an ultralight .

 

Some time ago someone opened a thread here at Flightsim with the following line ;

" I'm new to here. I was wondering if anyone knows of a gauge that could help me line up my designated runway, say from about 10 or so miles out. I fly mainly VFR and I have trouble lining up the runway as I only see it at the last moment. "

 

Well , with the 'Intercept" capability in this instrument you can enter any Distance and it will guide you to a location on the Approach pathway , he quoted 10 miles , but you can input any distance , for example 7.2 nm .

 

Also this instrument can be used at the same time as a Radio NAVAID ILS , and it will help you to find your Approach prior to engaging Approach hold .

 

Cheers

Karol

Karol, you make some awesome instruments.

I see you over on FSDev forums sometimes.

 

They even have some similar to your's, or maybe they are your's, I don't know, in the TMAP Add TacPack to Any Plane kit. Amazing work.

I have the F-111 PIG HUD project v8.1, I think it is. It's GREAT. I love to fly it for relaxation sometimes.

 

Thanks for your hard work! I sure appreciate you publishing it for public consumption, and I'm sure others will too. I'm downloading this as soon as I can find it :D

Have fun!

Pat☺

Karol, Just a bunch of kudos for a great utility. I like to fly into small airports (like KCMA) and dodging the mountains is fun but lining up with a runway that DOESN'T have an ILS can be daunting. Your gauge works perfectly and you've put alot of work and thought into its development. Thank you.. This works much like "QuickILS" in places when there is no ILS. Great Job... Terry

Hi Terry

 

Thank you for your comments .

With this instrument you can choose a nearby airport from the list , or enter any 4 character airport ICAO anywhere in the world , it can be on the other side of the planet and you still get Distance and Bearing to it .

Once you become familiar with it you will find that it gives you full 3D Situation Awareness , you will know the aircraft's disposition relative to the chosen Airport/Runway even in zero visibility , such as at night .

I included 3 diagram shots , 2 are Standard rectangular circuits , and 1 is an orientation diagram , they are there as an aid to develop an understanding of what the instrument is telling you , it provides all the information to build a clear image of the aircraft relative to the runway that you want to use for landing .

 

Hi Pat

 

Thank you for your comments.

My own view is that the instrument is neat , it provides a huge amount of information , it's accuracy or precision is stunning , when I originally created it I was surprised at it's accuracy , so I ran a series of tests that confirmed it's absolute precision .

If you do get around to using it , please check out the " Intercept " capability , it's a gem of a feature, it makes your approaches much easier to conduct.

Actually this instrument's capabilities was used to conduct measurements of bomb fall distances for

all heights from 300' to 37,500' to calculate correction factors to ensure bombing precision in my

F-111 automated BNS (Bomb Navigation System) instrument .

 

Cheers

Karol

Ditto on the kudos.

 

Thank you for your talented effort on this intriguing instrument.

 

Ray Hff

Amazing ... off to try it out. Thank you!

There used to be a TV series called MASH , at that field hospital they had a sign post that had pointers with the distance to various place names around the world .

 

One thing that I have done with this instrument is to fly until I'm in the area of my home , then hit

Pause ( P ) , then enter various places around the world , such as ,

EGCC Manchester , EGLL London , EDDF Frankfurt , LFPG Paris , LIRF Rome , WSSS Singapore ,

KJFK New York , KLAX Los Angeles .

All of these places are listed in the included Airports PDF .

I effectively create that signpost at my home with the Distances and Direction to all those places.

 

I know it's a trivial thing to do , but it's fun , and it's another use that the instrument can be put to .

 

Cheers

Karol

This instrument can be used as a flexible training aid to practice flying the ILS .

It can also be used side by side with an actual Tuned Radio NAVAID ILS .

 

Most ILS are at a GS (glideslope) angle of 3.00 degrees .

For GS 3 degrees the height above runway elevation for various distances to run are ,

1 nm = 318' , 2 nm = 636' , 3 nm = 954' , 4 nm = 1271' , 5 nm = 1589' , 6 nm =1907' ,

7 nm = 2225' , 8 nm = 2543' .

Further distances can easily be charted by simply inputting increasing distances in

the Intercept facility .

 

While most ILS use a 3.00 degree glideslope angle , or very close to 3 degrees , however there are exceptions ,

ILS Glideslopes greater than 3.0°,

London City (EGLC) is 5.5°, Chambéry (LFLB) is 4.46°, Innsbruck (LOWI) 4.0°, Lugano (LSZA) 6.65°.

 

one example is London City airport ( EGLC ) UK , the glideslope at EGLC is 5.50 degrees .

The attached shot shows an autopilot coupled ILS approach to London City , the ILS is centered in the Right MFD ,

The Left MFD is showing a "Synthetic ILS" also centered , the synthetic ILS GS has been set at 5.5 degrees .

You can see that with 4 nm to run the height above the runway elevation (S-HT) is 2368' , whereas if a 3 degree GS was used that height would be 1271' .

This Synthetic ILS instrument has a settable Intercept distance , in this case the intercept of the ILS approach path was set at 7 nm displaying a height above runway of 4070' for the intercept position , again if a 3 degree GS was used it would be 2225' .

 

Note ,

1. this Glideslope is virtually twice as steep as the usual, it'S quite noticeable.

2. due to steep GS approach angle the airbrake has been deployed to keep approach speeds in check .

 

Have repeated an enlarged Left MFD to make detail more readable .

click X 3 to enlarge.

 

Cheers

Karol

A very instructive screenshot, thank you!

 

I have been test flying a few approaches and really like the powerful services offered by the gauge. I usually turn on the ILS visual guides (red rectangles) as well for crosschecking. Integrating this into a 3d VC would also be nice I guess.

 

One or two questions/suggestions, but I realize they may be dumb ones for various reasons:

 

- Would it be nice to use the highlighting text facility to see which functions are already turned ON (eg ILS and INT)? And perhaps for greying out the buttons that are currently non-functional?

- Would there be a way of reading/calculating an airport's glide slope angle so that it sets itself automatically, rather than having to enter 5.5 for London manually?

- Could the intercept height be given in plain feet above sea level so that the value can be posted directly to the autopilot when approaching the intercept point, just like you can post the bearing?

Edited September 9, 2018 by mjahn

mjahn

 

Q. - Could the intercept height be given in plain feet above sea level so that the value can be posted directly to the autopilot when approaching the intercept point, just like you can post the bearing?

A. Yes , by adding the , Elevation to the S-Ht , I chose to use S-Ht (Height above Runway surface), because Altitude is irrelevant for Approach aspects.

An example , you are flying towards your Airport/Runway , you are at a nice comfortable altitude of 4,000' amsl , however you might be approaching KDEN (Denver USA) , it's elevation is about 5,300' , so effectively you are 1,300' lower than the Runway .

Your height above the runway ( S-HT ) is the critical aspect for this instrument .

 

Q. - Would there be a way of reading/calculating an airport's glide slope angle so that it sets itself automatically, rather than having to enter 5.5 for London manually?

A. No , there are no Variables covering the ILS glideslope or location in the SDK's .

As far as I'm aware this instrument is the only way you can measure what a Radio NAVAID ILS glideslope angle is , by running them side by side as in that screenshot, and noting what the GS readout value is .

 

Q. - Would it be nice to use the highlighting text facility to see which functions are already turned ON (eg ILS and INT)? And perhaps for greying out the buttons that are currently non-functional?

A. That could be done , I'm not sure why though as it is all self evident by looking at the instrument.

 

The extreme accuracy of this instrument far exceeds the red rectangles , once you get used to it and learn how to assimilate the data that it presents, you will find that it provides a full 3D image of your scenario at all times relative to , your aircraft , the Approach and the chosen runway .

 

Cheers

Karol

Thanks, Karol.

 

Re setting intercept height in the AP, which requires Altitude Indicated, I understand you have to add S-Ht and Airport Elevation. The values are listed in the gauge, so I add up, say 987 to 4899 and dial that in to the AP. Fair enough, but doing that via a single click might help a busy pilot!

 

Re greying out irrelevant bits would reduce clutter and make the gauge even more self-evident than it already is. But it's only a very minor point probably not worth the effort.

 

Still thinking about an AP interface one could perhaps also post the bearing to selected airport directly to the heading hold button of the AP? I could see uses for this but won't labor the point.

 

I really like the well-written documentation and am learning a lot reading it even though it's late in the day for me. Still have to learn the use of the Mark Position features.

 

Best

Manfred

Hi Manfred

 

# 1 . Re setting intercept height in the AP, which requires Altitude Indicated, I understand you have to add S-Ht and Airport Elevation. The values are listed in the gauge, so I add up, say 987 to 4899 and dial that in to the AP. Fair enough, but doing that via a single click might help a busy pilot!

 

That can be easily done , however , caution needs to be applied due to Terrain obstacles , the temptation would exist to set that altitude figure to autopilot Altitude hold .

If you are en route with a large distance to go , and you set that altitude the autopilot will command the aircraft down and possibly conflict ( hit ) mountain terrain .

Basically if you add that capability you can count on users making the entry too early and hitting terrain .

 

# 2 . Still thinking about an AP interface one could perhaps also post the bearing to selected airport directly to the heading hold button of the AP? I could see uses for this but won't labor the point.

 

It should be doing that . If I click on the ' Bearing to Intercept " value it sets that bearing value to the autopilot Heading Hold in my aircraft .

The caution here is that for very large en route distances you must click it several times as you progress .

Reason ; as you progress along a Great Circle the Heading ( Bearing ) will change along the way .

So for large distances you need to update the Heading Hold with the current Bearing value periodically . Great Circle navigation is covered in the usual navigation textbooks .

 

Cheers

Karol

Right, #2 is possible via the clickable intercept bearing. If it were also possible via the airport bearing one wouldn't have to define the intercept parameter first ... yeah, I have made more relevant suggestions. Take it as my way of saying thanks.

 

Re #1, granted, it would be the pilot's responsibility to make sure there is no intervening terrain or obstacle before activating the altitude hold that leads him to the intercept. That's what he is paid for after all.

 

Best, Manfred

Hi Manfred

 

Regards,

Right, #2 is possible via the clickable intercept bearing. If it were also possible via the airport bearing one wouldn't have to define the intercept parameter first ... yeah, I have made more relevant suggestions. Take it as my way of saying thanks.

 

You don't have to make a distance entry .

When you call up the ' Intercept pane ' the default distance will read 0 nm , it is at the ILS aimpoint on the runway at that airport , " Just click the Bearing , and you will have entered the Heading to the airport " .

 

In other words the starting point of the Intercept is on the runway at 0 nm , then any distance that you input thereafter moves the Intercept point back along the Approach axis .

 

With this approach you end up having choices , whichever you require ,

1. Intercept distance 0 nm = airport .

2. A set Intercept distance XX.X nm = your desired distance out along the approach axis at which you choose to intercept and align with the Approach .

Whichever of these options you choose , you can then click Bearing to set it to AP Heading Hold .

 

What I do is enter 0 nm for the long distance en route phase , then as I get closer to the airport I set the Intercept distance to

for example 12 nm , that has the AP initially tracking to the Airport , then turns to my approach axis , generally I line up at 10 to 12 nm out level at 2,500' ( S-Ht ) , then at 7.8 nm out I hit the 3.00 degree Glideslope line and commence my ILS descent .

It keeps everything tidy and makes approaches very , very easy to conduct .

 

Cheers

Karol

Right-o I'm happy with that.

--M.

Hi Karol and everyone.

A very interesting Gauge, and very useful for many acft.

A couple of things I want o point out:

1-You can Install the gauge in the global directory X..\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Gauges\

if you just copy the folder ILS_MFD there, and just modify the corresponding panel.cfg for each acft. accordingly, as described in the .txt file.

2-Typically ILS extends / ends about 1000 ft. beyond the approaching end of the runway, and it may be a good idea to have the gauge conform to that to prevent confusion and compared to a acft. that has a built in ILS gauge.

This is an interesting guage. I don't know about FSX but it does perform very well in FS2004. Thank you for this! It was exactly what I was looking for to complete a panel on a favorite aircraft of mine.

2-Typically ILS extends / ends about 1000 ft. beyond the approaching end of the runway, and it may be a good idea to have the gauge conform to that to prevent confusion and compared to a acft. that has a built in ILS gauge.

 

No , definitely not .

While you can fly this instrument side by side with a Radio NAVAID tuned ILS , it is primarily created to be used alone .

You can use it in a Helicopter where you need full guidance all the way down to the Touchdown spot.

It works and can be used at any runway length , regardless of what that length is , your chosen runway might be for example , 200' long , or 1,025' , or 6137' , or 16,236' .

It always creates an ILS aimpoint ( touchdown spot ) by automatically calculating a position at 6% of the actual Runway length .

It is totally flexible .

 

Now if you use Page 4 ( Mark Position ) , and you have a Helicopter sitting on a tiny ' hardened rooftop ' on top of a high rise building , and you then click the top left " MK " button , you have Captured or Tagged that spot , it then becomes an ILS aimpoint ( touchdown spot ) .

You can then go and fly away to any distance to conduct whatever task you wish to , then you

have full guidance to return to your rooftop and conduct a full precision ILS approach and landing at either a glideslope of 3.00 degrees or any glideslope angle that you enter and set , you can even do a precision absolute vertical Hover letdown to that rooftop even though you cannot see it because it is out of sight directly underneath your Helicopter .

 

I did a lot of thought and testing during the creation of this instrument to give it potent capabilities.

 

Cheers

Karol

I'm lovin' it!

 

My first two flights selected from the Nearest list (KEDW to KRIV with and without an intercept point) worked fine, but then I tried to set up a flight to Kern Valley L05. When gauge failed to accept that direct entry 3-character ICAO code I tried Mariposa-Yosamite O68. No go also. How do we enter a 3-character code? Trying to start or end with a space doesn't work... If there's something in the instruction PDF, I surely missed it.

 

Thanks,

Loyd

I'm lovin' it!

 

My first two flights selected from the Nearest list (KEDW to KRIV with and without an intercept point) worked fine, but then I tried to set up a flight to Kern Valley L05. When gauge failed to accept that direct entry 3-character ICAO code I tried Mariposa-Yosamite O68. No go also. How do we enter a 3-character code? Trying to start or end with a space doesn't work... If there's something in the instruction PDF, I surely missed it.

 

Thanks,

Loyd

 

Hi Loyd

 

You are correct , the search entry only accepts 4 character codes ,

If a 3 character ICAO appears on the Nearest listing it can then be selected .

 

There is no reference to this in the the PDF .

Just over 3 years ago when I created this instrument I created the PDF in a rushed manner to send to one individual , so the notes could have been better .

I had no intention of releasing this instrument , however just over a week ago during a discussion with a gent I mentioned the instrument , he requested that I upload it , and I agreed to upload it in an as is condition .

Due to the complexity of the coding within this instrument I have no wish to attempt to change it at this stage .

 

I'm sorry if it has caused you any inconvenience .

 

Cheers

Karol

thanks for the quick reply. I suspected that was a limitation.

 

Minimal inconvenience - since I "live" with Plan-G, I'll just grab a 4-letter code in the area until the 3-letter is within the nearest 16 and then select it. Good work nevertheless. I appreciate your efforts.

 

Regards,

Loyd

Hi Karol.

OK, now I understand your logic. Nothing wrong with it, but what prompted me to to sugest the ILS point was the name "ILS" included. This is more of a "PLS" Precision Landing System.

There are many things I like about the gauge, like the high sensitivity that forces you to increase your scan.

I was going to suggest that you display the Ground Speed and a simple working Timer in the same page / window with the ILS bars, which are used / needed during approaches. I can see that you no longer update the code and this is a worthwhile addon as is.

Thanks for the effort.

 

You can use it in a Helicopter where you need full guidance all the way down to the Touchdown spot.

It works and can be used at any runway length , regardless of what that length is , your chosen runway might be for example , 200' long , or 1,025' , or 6137' , or 16,236' .

It always creates an ILS aimpoint ( touchdown spot ) by automatically calculating a position at 6% of the actual Runway length .

It is totally flexible .

 

Karol

Flying the ILS manually using the white ILS deviation bars can be difficult , and intimidating to some pilots .

 

Fortunately this instrument provides an alternative method whereby both the Approach , and the Glideslope letdown can be accurately conducted without the ILS deviation bars .

 

The attached shot describes such a scenario .

* It starts at the bottom of the sheet at ' Position 1 ' which is over 40 nm from the runway , you cannot see the runway , but the instrument can .

* Initially the aircraft is flown towards the ' Extended Runway Heading Axis ' with the Circuit Width decreasing .

* When the Circuit Width reaches 0.00 nm you are on the Axis , you maintain the 0.00 nm value all the way to the Runway .

* During this flight the GS ( Glideslope ) readout value will steadily increase , observe it , then when it reaches 3.00 degrees pitch the nose down and maintain exactly the 3.00 degree descent profile all the way to the Runway .

 

It's quite a simple method to use .

 

If you wish to copy the attached shot , click on shot , the view that appears will have a dialogue indicating size 1600 x 900 , ' Right click ' on it , then select ' save image as ' , it will be downloaded to your downloads folder , and you can copy it to the screenshots folder that came with the instrument package .

 

I hope it is instructive .

 

Cheers

Karol

Hi Karol.

That statement is correct in the sense that it requires a good scan, and that is one one of the reasons I like your instrument, it forces you to improve your scan, when used in the high precision mode.

The reality is, in real life flying, the ILS approaches are easier to perform than many / most non precision. After you intercept the GS you have less work to do, no fixes, step downs, heading adjustments... just follow the bars.

I use the simulators, and have been using them in a different form since 1976, to refresh the procedure sequences for the time I may not be flying sufficient, for me is at least 2x/ wk.

I also recommend to the pilots I fly with, in particular the the IFR rated, to do the same.

That said, it's important that the location, size, spacing of the instruments be in the proper sequence and replicate a real world acft. in order to maintain a proper scan. Fortunately I have some acft. that I created, like the 182RG that allow me to do that on a 42 in. screen. There are also some other acft. that exist where you can set set things up to accomplish close to the same result.

Thanks again for your effort and I hope some day you may want to add the Timer and Ground Speed to the ILS bars window. That would make it one window, complete, precision approach gauge.

 

Flying the ILS manually using the white ILS deviation bars can be difficult , and intimidating to some pilots .

toggle rwy does not appear to work. I cannot get the rwy to switch? Any suggestions?