Follow-Up And Clarification On ILS Tutorial

By Ron Blehm (6 July 2004)

Since writing the original how to article I have received many e-mails, mainly from FS2004 users, about difficulties loading the situations or getting a screen-full of panel with no outside view. I whole-heartedly apologize for that. This was NOT some evil plot to force you to learn how to "Fly the Panel." More likely it is an issue of putting a situation saved in FS2002 into an FS2004 sim! Regardless, I know that it is a hard and frustrating thing to have a bunch of downloads that don't work or don't live up to your expectations. Frankly, I was afraid something like this might happen.

So, here is a very brief update or summary without any downloads. If you follow these step-by-step instructions the new iron sim pilot should be up and flying in no time at all! First, I would refer you to an old article by Geert Rolf; you really need to read this piece, it's important. To answer one e-mail I got, yes, I know it's from a couple of versions ago, it is "quite old" but I doubt the placard flaps and gear speed of the 737 have changed much in 6-7 years and the headings between Brussels and Paris certainly should be the same. As he stated, if you want to get flying, not necessarily "by the book" but quickly, his step-by-step directions will allow you to do that. Also, the point of my article was to build on Mr. Rolf's work and get you "flying" an ILS approach without just hitting the APP button and heading to your local Starbucks.

SET-UP:

1. Choose a plane you like. I picked this Tony Radmilovich-painted 735 from www.toomuchfs.com, "The Flight of the Month Club", seen here to the right.

2. Load the simulator and the plane of your choice. Select GO TO AIRPORT > EUROPE > MOLDOVA > CHISINAU (LUKK) > RUNWAY 8.

3. Once that loads you should be in your 737 (or other iron) idling at the end of Chisinau's runway 8. Be sure it's daylight, clear all weather and set fuel to maybe 50%. (I was in too big a hurry so still had real weather and full fuel). Select flaps 10-15 degrees.

4. Now, set HDG on your autopilot to 082. Set altitude to 3000 feet. Set IAS to 220. DO NOT turn autopilot on!

TAKE-OFF:

1. When you are ready, throttle up and release the brakes. Ground steering until you are ready to rotate, pull back gently on the yoke/stick until you are climbing. Once you have a good rate of climb, ENGAGE flight director, ENGAGE autothrottles, ENGAGE autopilot. Select HDG, ALT, IAS, Y/D. Double check your rate of climb to be sure it's not too high, maybe 1000 fpm or so? (Didn't Geert's article cover all this?)

2. Once your autopilot has settled in and taken control of your aircraft, retract gear and flaps fully, then set HDG to 178. As your plane banks, set ALT to maybe 20,000 feet or so. Once you are through your turn, set IAS to 240 and rate of climb to maybe 2000 fpm if you'd like.

CRUISE:

1. After 10,000 feet you can increase IAS to 320 or so.

2. Set your radios as follows:

• NAV1 to the ILS 111.10
• Set CRS to the runway heading of 175
• NAV2 to the VOR 112.50
• ADF to the NDB 396

I'm not sure what was going on, like I say, I was in a big hurry so I wasn't getting NAV2 or NDB but oh well. Oh, our destination is just over 350 miles away, Ataturk Airport in Istanbul Turkey. About 151 miles out from Istanbul I picked up the VOR (on NAV1) and saw that the radial was slightly to my right, I turned 5 degrees to 183 so I could intercept the 175 radial inbound.

GOING IN:

1. Somewhere around 50-60 miles DME I slowed IAS to 190 and set ALT to 5000 feet. Did you read the first part of my ILS Tutorial? My goal here is to have you use the autopilot all the way to the runway, just little mouse clicks, small corrections to get and stay lined up. Like we have said, this is to get the new pilot fired up and flying quickly, not necessarily "by the book."

2. Once you get the localizer and glideslope make little clicks of the mouse for HDG to line up with the runway. As the glideslope drops down you should set your ALT to -200 feet. (That's 200 feet BELOW sea level, not a typo) Then, adjust your rate of descent to keep that little arrow locked in. As stated, I accidentally had Real Weather loaded so had to play with my ROD a bit, dropping at 600-900 fpm. See picture, left.

FINAL:

Didn't I cover all this in the original piece? See, my fear was that if you couldn't load my situations or get a good outside view you'd figure you couldn't run the drill. My hope was that you'd at least take the information Mr. Rolf and I suggested to get into the air - and maybe even, safely back down again. I can't fly the thing for you! See picture, right - lined up!

1. Using little mouse clicks on the autopilot's HDG and ROD buttons to keep lined up you'll need to slow down, drop in flaps and gear at the appropriate times (See the "Quick Start Guide" for your speed and distance recommendations) and ride her in.

2. Somewhere under 200 feet AGL you'll need to GRADUALLY DECREASE your ROD to -100 fpm (or less). This eases your drop so you can land smoothly.

3. Somewhere under 100 feet AGL you'll need to DECREASE your IAS to 70-80 knots. To answer, again, an e-mail which stated that the iron jets don't handle well under 100 knots, "They might not even fly at speeds less then that." Since I cannot maintain 240 knots all the way to the gate, logic dictates that somewhere in the process I have to throttle back. Somewhere in the process of landing a plane does need to STOP FLYING. For me, this is that point!

4. Normally I don't like autobraking but since I had full fuel (and was a bit too nose-up) I selected "autobraking one".

5. You'll ease down until the wheels kiss the pavement, you'll need to hit the spoiler key and then DISCONNECT ALL AUTOPILOT FUNCTIONS! Start hitting reverse thrust and be ready to take over ground steering as soon as the nose wheel settles down.

6. Today, I was left of center and long, but got stopped by the mid-field turn-off. Not bad for a fully loaded, fully coupled, non-APP mode landing! (Picture, left.)

I hope that this little additional flight will help you all to get the kinks worked out, in whatever version of FS you use. Now, you can set up other flights in other weather in other planes - but you'll have to take some of that initiative on your own!

Happy landings to all.

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