First you input ILS frequency in NAV1 (the radio), then when (vectored on finals from ATC) on the struments you begin to see the ILS needles move away from the instruments' center you press APP on the autopilot.

When the autopilot estabilshes itself, first on the localizer and then on the glidescope, it automatically disengage the HDG and ALT hold, when it's time.

Of course you HAVE to make sure the NAV/GPS selector is on NAV, else the approach function will try to follow the GPS instead leading to... hairy results.

It may happen, in some airports, that a ILS signal the localizer signal is a lot more powerful and far reaching than the glidescope's signal.  You see in this case that the needle of the localizer deviates from the center while instead the glidescope remains dead centered.

In this case what I think is a bug of FS makes it so that if you press APP, the autopilot will disengage both HDG and ALT, confused perhaps by the glidescope's indicator position, and will begin following whatever it can of the localizer giving you at the same time a random descending asset a lot of time before it should, making you crash if you don't stop it.

In this case (localizer present and functional, glidescope out of range) it's a good habit to use the NAV hold first so to let the plane begin align to the localizer, and when the glidescope needle leaves the center (meaning there's a signal) you should press APP.

APP and NAV hold are mutually exclusive. APP is used on finals to begin whatever autoland FS has.  You can't land on NAV hold and, case above mentioned aside, should not use NAV on a approach unless you want or must give the plane a manual descending asset (like in the case of some simpler ILS's that do not have a glidescope).

I've always landed the big irons following the above listed rules and besides some... mishaps due to third agencies , I've always brought the plane down safely.

How do you find out the ILS to put into NAV1???

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That's strange, but not unheard of.

Case in point, take this for size (happens to me more times than I like it to).  3 on 10 IFR flights I do I'm in cruise and getting near the airport I have to land in.

I wait for ATC to clear me to descend... and wait... and wait... until, 60 miles away from the runway (when there's no way in a very hot place I can descend safely and in time) I'm told to leave FL310 to descend FL240. ???

I have barely time to descend FL240 (with  my passengers complaining my liberal use of 2500 negative feet per minute descend, airbrakes, and a string of unrepeatable curses in ancient Aramaic, modern Coptic, and future Latin) that I'm told to descend FL180.

I have only begun the second descend when I'm told by ATC to descend and mantain 3900 and I'm cleared to ILS landing.

Needless to say, by the time I'm vertically on the runway I'm still WAY over FL150 and told / choosing to go around.

Things are either:

1) ATC thinks I have the only ever built b747 (but it has happened with other planes) capable of VTOL.  Which is somewhat flattering if one keeps in mind that not even the Air Force One is able to take off or land like an elicopter, but false because the 747-400 (or whatever airplane I'm piloting at that time) I'm piloting is a common Meljet.

2) ATC stinks something awful.

I leave to you the answer.

What can we do about this?  How can we make this right?

Well one can always use Vatsim or another on-line realistic ATC, and if that is not an option one can always buy Radar Contact.

Default ATC?  I'm beginning to really hate it.

There's a very, very good ILS tutorial on this site, that helped me a lot.  It explains how to do everything, and when to do it!  Try looking it up, I'm sure it'll answer almost all your questions.

http://www.simviation.com/fshelp.htm

Click on ILS Tutorial... or something like that