Hi! I’m having trouble catching ILS glideslopes on the FBW A320 and I hope I’ll get some help here. For context, I don’t know how to fly in real life and I’m mostly guessing so odds are that I’m doing something wrong. Especially as this does not seem to be a known issue with the current release. I’m using the latest stable build and whether I install from Marketplace or FBW installer doesn’t seem to matter.
So, my problem is that the aircraft doesn’t start descending along the glideslope. Whether it finds it or not I’m not sure. But the latest time I tried it did start descending but very very late, almost in a dive. A month or two ago I did not have this problem; I simply pressed APR when nearing the runway, possible preceded by LOC, and all went well. Then it just stopped working.
I’ll try to attach two images. The first one shows the instruments after the glideslope should have engaged but didn’t. The other (through VR) shows instruments after it did start descending.
I find it suspicious that ILS and CRS top-right in the middle display, first picture, are just purple lines. But what do I know. Any advice?
I think for ILS you need to enter the ILS frequency to the rad/nav page of the fmc, then when near, click on the LS switch and you should see the ILS diamonds, then press approach button and AP2 and it should auto land, myself always enjoy using ILS as guide and fly full manual though so I am not really sure the ap2 thing as I normally turn off auto thrust and ap once near the airport and follow the ILS signal myself
As kindeko says , but you don’t need to turn off auto throttle, though turn off AP about 500 ft from touchdown , have you set your throttle detents?
As you may want to use reverse thrust on touchdown but depending on the length of runway not necessary
Also do you arm spoilers on approach as you would need to do that to aid stopping and ensure the plane stays settled on roll out along with flaps of course
Finally brakes but use sparingly otherwise they will get hot and you would need to turn on brake fan but that’s another topic in itself
Wow, lots of answers fast! Let’s see now.
I don’t enter anything manually in the FMS simply because I don’t know how to. However, at least earlier that wasn’t necessary if using the sim’s built-in flight planner and choosing ILS approach there. Then everything was transferred to the aircraft.
However I did not push the LS button, that’s true.
Spoilers are armed. When ILS works I usually disengage AP at maybe 200 feet and land manually (but with Auto Throttle) from there. I have no idea how to do fully automatic landings.
Does it matter whether speed and altitude before entering glideslope are set to managed or… the other setting (“selected”?)
When you pass through decel it will reduce your speed, gear down and flaps at the right intervals will get you just about 140 knots for touchdown, good luck
Also no need to touch SPD it’s automatically going to set that if you have configured everything right
Also make sure your QNH , pressure is set correctly in mcdu
Clarification: getting correct speed is not the problem. Nor is braking on the runway. It’s capturing the glideslope I can’t seem to do.
Best bet so far seems to be pushing the LS button also. I’ll try the same approach again and not forgetting that when I have the chance, hopefully later today.
This has unfortunately changed with the last sim update.
If you know the runway you are landing on before the flight, you can look the frequency up in the flight planner and before the descent enter it into the RAD NAV page
AFAIK autoland only works with the development version. Disengaging the AP at 200ft is perfectly fine.
At some point along the development, the ILS frequency was not automatically transferred anymore to the FMC. Very annoying change, especially for people not aware it needs to be in there.
THere is no ILS in your screenshots. Guess you didn’t got the ILS frequency in the MCDU. And as already written, you have to push the ILS button next to the FD button, but first of all, when you check your flightplan make a crosscheck at the RAD NAV page, if the ILS frequency is in. If not, do it manually.
You need to enable ‘show navaids’ in the filter and click on the localizer symbol (just behind the opposite end of the runway)
But for many airports there are free charts available, which is recommended because these show the correct distance and waypoints where to intercept the ILS.
Generally ~10 - 15NM from the airport.
Provided that 109.9 MHz is indeed the correct ILS frequency, would this be sufficient? Thought I’d ask before trying, as I have to cook dinner at the same time… very common problem for pilots, I hear.
