It’s all a bit awkward… the flightplan without ‘approach’ I made by keeping the runway drop down to ‘direct’ and the first drop down set to a star or transition. So the plan brought me to the runway, but the GPS did not have an ‘approach’ section in the flightplan. In fact ATC gave me a RNAV approach to the runway.
If you set an ILS runway in the MSFS planner, and then delete the approach from the GPS, you get the right clearance, but you have to set some kind of ‘direct to’ waypoint for the final leg.
The alternative is my first method: keep it on GPS but don’t see the glideslope coming in.
I’m not sure what the GPS flightplan looks like if you plan through LittleNavMap. But if there’s an approach section in the plan, I bet now that’s the problem.
It’s that Asobo GPS and their half broken flightplanning.
And perhaps you know this already, but you can check if there’s an approach in the GPS flight plan by pressing FPL button (wait a few seconds to populate), then activate the cursor on it, and scroll down.
If there’s a separate approach section at the bottom, it’s in there.
What I do for the DC6 Specifically is add way points that are on the ILS to my plan. But I never add or choose an approach in the SIM or the GPS. I export it as VFR (from Littlenavmap) too so it should not have any IFR rules, that way I have flight following. I make sure I check the weather to get the correct DEP/ARR runways. I write down the ILS FREQ/CRS etc, I check when I am near the ILS by pre-tuning and checking the DME, at about 15NM out I switch to VLOC (I do toggle it a few times) but no matter what I do I really only ever get a 10% success rate I would say.
I am a bit fed up with it all TBH, Id like to fly the DC6 but if I have to keep clearing the weather or doing really unrealistic things, it just puts me off. I think its the Sim TBH and not the DC6, I am hoping that things change with the next update. I am holding off buying anything else until its all more reliable, I was going to buy the Warrior but even with the discount, its just to me a waste at the moment until the SIM is working better. Even the CRJ suffers from this, though not as bad, Despite Aerosoft’s protest it does not.
I am going to buy the inbuilds A310 it will cost me £70 even after the A300 discount is applied, but I know it will all work as intended…Shame.
I am familiar with all the GPS options or Procedures etc, but it never works for me in the DC6.
I think PMDG was probably in a pickle. Clearly they didn’t have their own GPS unit and they can’t implement an FMC. From my experiments I can’t be sure if PMDG can solve this… perhaps there’s options for them to read the whole thing better and override whatever that approach phase is doing. But I’m not sure they’re truly aware of this issue in the first place. Anyone complaining at PMDG forum first gets all the users explaining how it’s supposed to be done. Yes we know… it doesn’t work!
Please do check your GPS next time? I do like to get my results confirmed by someone else. If you do not have an approach phase in the GPS flight plan and it still fails, my findings should be regarded as coincidence.
If I can get it confirmed I might file a ticket with PMDG.
Not having issue with this myself but I have recently done a full fresh install after clearing out everything and I have not put any mods back in. Base code in the sim is working as it should be. No ILS issues nothing. I assume mods are breaking the base game. Even if you have no mods installed currently they could have done some damage. Now in theory they shouldn’t and everything should work just fine but alas that is not what I am seeing lately with mods. Hence why I have resorted to a pure vanilla install for testing purposes. I am using the GPS and switch to VLOC and set approach mode without issue. I am also using various approaches with ILS and RNAV.
Yes, that could very well be a cause too. I agree. But it’s also difficult to determine if the people who say they don’t have the issue are flying the DC-6 in a way the issue might show.
Apparently if you only use the radios: no issue. If you use the GPS without an approach phase (as far as I can tell now): no issue.
So only people who set this up in a specific way and use the GPS, might encounter this.
If I had or have to do a full re-install I am not going to bother re-installing. I have so much airports, add-ons Payware etc it would take me days… No way. A32NX works fine on the said ILS. How I test is very simple. the WTCJ4 is the ONLY PLANE that flies IFR with a flight plan with DEP/ARR without issues, no work arounds, no stupid behaviours…It just works, the day that stops working is the day I will consider a re-install.
I havent had a single issue with Arrival + Approach procedures and capturing the ILS at any airport Ive flown the DC-6 to in europe.
Something I always do is always add the ILS frequency in the NAV2. No idea if that helps the situation.
Also I upgraded the GNS via github, highly recommended.
No not yet. Would like to get some confirmation from people with the same issues.
The intermittent problem is that once in a while, say for me 1 out of 10, it does work. So there’s something else at play too. And I should probably try some reinstalls first. See if that changes anything.
I’ve tried the NAV2 too, that didn’t help. And I tried a GPS mod. That also didn’t work. Which one do you use?
I was wondering though if there’s a way to get that NAV/VLOC gauge to react to NAV2? I don’t fully get the function of that second NAV or where to use it.
Last week i had serious issues. Fuel flow of 200 lbs per second!, fuses poppimg every second resulting in enigine loss, nav loss etc etc. So i made a topic on their forum just to check if somebody else had the same issue. It was not the case. I was about to make a ticket, when i reinstalled everything again (make sure you use deinstaller, and remove the last bits manual from c drive), and it worked perfect again. I fly only with bendix radios ( no gps) s o i cant tell if i ever had issues with that but a fresh reinstall might solve a lot of problems. I had it with the fbw a320 also in the past.
I think when using the radios only, the GPS is out of the picture. Another confirmation that the GPS is the problem-causer. I mean, the fact that you have to keep toggling that GPS/VLOC button is already an indication it’s bugged.
Then the weird stuff, where it locks onto an invisible glideslope when you keep it on GPS (works 100% of the time).
I’ve also been reading up on some mods and the one by WT mentions several bugs in the flightplan part of the original GPS. What I don’t understand yet is why - very rarely - it does work (also with an approach in the GPS). The approach part is triggering it, but there’s another bug at play.
It’s one of the reasons I think a reinstall won’t help. This is Asobo code. What I am planning is first to remove the navigational folder of Asobo, which holds the GPS stuff. Let that one reinstall. Then, after the big update next week (see if that changes anything) maybe a DC-6 reinstall and remove the FBW Airbus. There’s a slight possibility that one is conflicting.
It’s just that all this experimenting is quite time consuming. After a year MSFS, I still feel like a beta-tester. This stuff should just work…
And another bug: when in gyropilot, switching VLOC to GPS, the autopilot starts reacting immediately to the GPS (which it shouldn’t do, only when switched to localizer).
I give up. That GPS is too messed up. Clearly it’s overriding all kinds of DC-6 systems.
