Hi guys,
Does anyone know how to find the ILS frequency of a specific runway ? Preferably in flight or at lesast during flight planning.
I need this freqency to make the autopilot intercept a GS on final approach right ?
/ Chaereld
Which country do you fly in?
Iam with u on this no airport charts and they expect us to fly planes with out the important infos also no plane performance specification info as well
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Ever typed it into google? If you fly in the USA, Airnav.com has every single chart you will need. If youa re in Australia, airservicesaustralia.com.au has everything⊠They are all simple to find and should all be part of the pre flight planning.
Never flown in europe but I just Googled, âIFR charts Heathrowâ and I got about 10 links to most charts. Câmon people, dont be lazy.
Have an ipad or tablet or phone next to you with the charts you will need for your flight. A real world pilot doesnt just jump in the plane and fly off without flight planning. In fact one of the first checklist items in the pre flight is check all your charts and books are in the aircraft!
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I agree, it should be easy to find on the planning page. You can turn the navids on in the planning page but have to press the mouse on every ILS/DME sign for every Airport to get all codes. Very inconvinient. And the FMC of the A320 does not show all arrivals for example when landing in Paris (only approches available landing to the east, none to the westâŠ)
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You could use Little Navmap for everything. Works just fine with MSFS 
and itâs free!
ALSO use OnAir Company to have your own career in MSFS.
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Jeppesen make i think all airport info, ils etc. Google airport name + ils+ jeppesen.
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So do I, but some ILS Freq. are different. And as I know Little Navmap does not yet read the datas from MSFS yet.
I had the exact same question 
In short, this tutorial (by a real Airbus pilot) helped me quite a lot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32q0xHybKmA
In general you should be able to lookup the frequencies in publicly available reports. Here are some resources that I found myself:
This has mostly the USA and South America covered when it comes to ILS frequencies. While most airports of the world can be found, e.g. Zurich (LSZH):
LSZH - Zurich Airport | SkyVector
they seem to lack what is called an Instrument Approach Procedure (IAP) document.
On the other hand we do find such an IAP for e.g. San Francisco International (KSFO):
SFO - San Francisco International Airport | SkyVector
Look at the very bottom of that page: e.g. for ILS approach on runway 28L we have:
https://skyvector.com/files/tpp/2009/pdf/00375I28LSAC2.PDF
The frequency you are looking for is in the top-left, in this case: 109.55. You should be able to enter this into the âNAV1â (I believe - not sure. I am a total beginner myself) and then track the beam like this.
BUT: there is a much easier way to fly from A to B, âbuilt inâ so to speak! The trick is to use the âFlight Plannerâ in FS2020, which will also automatically enter the ILS frequencies for you. So do the following, on the World Map:
- Select departure and arrival airport
- Change âVFR (Direct - GPS)â to âIFRâ (Low or High altitude, to your preference)
Now for the destination airport I found it the easiest to manually select the ILS runway! Keeping it as the default âAPPROACH (Automatic)â did not work for me (at least not in my first attempts), as the programmed flight plan then simply led me exactly over the destination airport - and then what!
So adjust the following for the destination airport:
- You can keep âARRIVALS (Direct)â - alternatively choose your own navigation waypoints here (I believe that is part of what is called âSTARâ (-> Standard terminal arrival route - Wikipedia)
- NOW THIS: Change âAPPROACH (Automatic)â to any runway with ILS
At this point this may generate quite an awkward approach path, depending on the general direction from which you are coming from and the actual destination airport. So you may want to play around with the ARRIVALS (or simply erase some intermediate waypoints during flight, as shown in the above YouTube tutorial).
But the take away point here is that by selecting the APPROACH runway (which as âILSâ in the name) this will automatically program the required ILS frequency into your navigation computer!
Depending on the flight the ATC will suggest different flight levels than what has been defined in the generated (and programmed) flight plan. So feel free to override the flight plan âconstraintsâ by listening to the suggestions of the ATC and manually select the altitude (flight level) in the autopilot.
But note that I had several occasions where the altitude - both suggested by ATC and the flight plan - was way too high for me to do a proper descend (like 15â000 feet while only being 15 miles away from the airport). So I missed the glide path and had to abandon the ILS approach. In this case the ATC suggested other navigation (âtransitionâ) waypoints (keep asking the ATC for the direction and check your VFR map, which also shows the navigation points - use the Heading autopilot to follow those courses). Luckily the ATC suggested the same ILS runway, so the frequency stayed the same.
To avoid the above simply descent at your own discretion, as a rule of thumb you want to be at roughly 3â000 feet when 10 miles away, in order to catch the glide beam. Ignore the ATC shouting at you that you are too low
Hope that helps.
UPDATE: In order to find ILS frequencies for e.g. Zurich, I found this resource:
https://flightplandatabase.com/
- Go to âToolsâ (in the top menu)
- Enter the ICAO code (e.g. LSZH) in the Airport Search
- You find the required ILS frequencies under âApproach Navaidsâ
Subject to inaccuracies (note the disclaimer at the bottom of the page ;)).
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- Coffee on board - CHECK!
- Graphics look gorgeous - CHECK!
- Pushing the thrust lever forward gives a pleasing rumbling noise - CHECK!
That has to suffice
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Thank you Steeler,
That is a thorough answer ! I have since my OP found out most of it by trial and error. A few youtube videos have also been helpful. As long as we utilize real world resources we are fine. My original idea was that there had to be âin simâ resources that i had missed. Hopefully your post will help others as well.
Clear skies !
Wow - I watched that. 320 video - holy cow.
I need to learn all this stuff. Thanks for the info!
Maybe youâre right, I donât know. But I havenât seen different frequencies anywhere.
Iâm using OnAir Company and Little Navmap, and they both show me same frequencies as MSFS.
With Little Navmap Iâm using Navigraph Airac 2009 (newest), but no connection to game database, so I have only about 14500 airports showing.
I could connect to XPlane database, and use those airports also, and then I would have over 36000 airports in use, but Iâm waiting for Little Navmap to be able to connect MSFS database.
For me everything works, as I have mentioned many times before.
I have never had the G1000 or G3000 get the ILS frequency automatically loaded. I found this on YouTube. In flight Planer. After you select Low or High ILS course. But, before to press" Fly. Click on filter at the bottom and select Nav aids. Next click on destination airport icon ,details and expand the page to see the runways. At the end of the runways are icons that represent the ILS locators. Click on the one at the far end of the runway you chose and the correct frequency and altitude will be in a menu on the left. The write it down and when you get into the plane enter and activate it in NAV1. In the G3000 you can get it inside the aircraft by entering the airports letters and select and activate it from a list.
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Thank you its nice to not have some condescending know-it-all to ask people to google when we already have and are still not finding what seems so simple. I would imagine if someone were to go through the effort of posting it here its within reason they would have googled it already.
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For the US I use airnav. Also has all airport info, click on the âdownload pdfâ and you get instant sectional chart for that area, as well as FAA airport diagrams, ILS pdf for specific runways, etc. I always keep my iPad next to me when flying.
https://www.airnav.com/airports/
Hereâs an example for KBOS runway 4RâŠ
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I struggled with this at first too. For US destinations, SkyVector was great. But since I do most of my flying from my Canadian home airport, that doesnât work.
I decided to spring for a Navigraph subscription. It gives me everything I need right in one place from planning to execution and has all the charts I could ever need.
On the Garmin 3000, you can use the MFD and choose Waypoint Info > Airport > {enter airport code] > Freqs and scroll down to the ILS frequency. Then you can click on the frequency and it gives you the option of adding it to your radio in either Nav 1 or Nav 2, and will either activate it or put it on standby. I do love the TBM for having this helpful feature.
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Check out AirMate: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aero.airmate.airmate
It includes IFR and VFR charts for the US, all Europe and 200+ other countries. Most are georeferenced. The GUI is a bit on the poor side but it gets the job done if all you want is plates.
And I canât recommend enough Navigraph, though itâs subscription based.
Itâs much more simple - I donât use any external stuff. Simply go under Waypoint Info under MFD. There, enter the airport code you are flying to. There is a button to see frequencies for all ILS runways that are there. Once you get that, go into NAV COMs and enter the frequency. Then make it active. Thatâs all.
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