Hi,

             I am brand new to here and was looking around and saw you guys give out some good advice and I was wondering if you could help me.  When I go to land the aircraft (ussually a B777) ATC only asks me for an Visual Approach when I want a ILS.

At the last minute they give me ILS clearance and I also never intercept the glideslpe.

Thanks so much I thought Visual approach ment you won't be intercepting the glideslope.

When do You intercept the glideslope

                ex: I was flying from KLAX to KSEA and was told to go to 2400 feet and they gave me clearance but I never intercepted the glideslope do you have any hints like being at a lower altitude or anything?

                      Thank you

First of all, like Nexus says, " it's just a simulation", so just fly  the approach, if you want to. If you're trying to keep it as real as possible(and I can appreciate that). If you're  cleared for the visual approach, you're cleared for the visual approach. If you want to shoot the ILS, then,as stated, lower the ceiling, using the weather menu. One thousand feet should be sufficient. I don't know if ATC will give you vectors for the approach, if you JUST lower the ceiling while, not on an IFR flight. Somebody help ME on that one!     Otherwise, you'll need to create and load a flightplan. After reviewing your post, I think I have an idea of what happened to you. ATC vectored you in too "tight". That means they turned you towards the ILS course, when you were already too close to the runway. What this means is: you'll pickup the LOCALIZER, INSIDE of the final approach fix, and the GLIDESLOPE will remain "parked" on the bottom of the scale. To give you a mental picture...........Let's say you're flying the LAX to SEA flight again. You get to within 30 miles of the airport(you should have your DME set to SEA-VOR to maintain situational awareness), and ATC begins to give you vectors. I'm assuming you're using Runway 34 Left or Right, because of the 2400' intercept altitude you were given. Let's use 34L for argument sake. You've been vectored Southwest of the final approach course. At 8miles the controller gives  you the approach clearance " turn to heading 040, maintain two thousand four hundred until established, cleared for the ILS 34 Left approach". I can already tell you , that under these circumstances, you are going to intercept the localizer INSIDE of TIFYS(the final approach fix), creating the scenario I just spoke of!    The computer ATC seems to have a habit of doing this, and if you have ANY wind .......fuggedaboudit!!!   What I would do in this case, and this is true to real world flying as well, is use a little "Kentucky Windage". The final intercept heading is 040 degrees. I look at my moving map and determine that this is going to create the above situation, and I just "widen out" to about  055 degrees. 

Thank you for the advice, I will fly the route tommrow and use the advice

           

LOL! Well, if they do their jobs properly, they can go about it in any way to the like! But I think if I contacting the tower for landing, I'd want them to concentrate on helping me land the plane rather than talking about cake...!