what's your NAV course?
Every localizer has front course, and you MUST tell the autopilot which course to track 

I believe your right Bruce regarding the course...I'm snowed in in the 737 and it's nice warnings whenever the is a course disagreement between the localizer course and selected autopilot NAV course.
A localizer is obviously not omni-directional, it has only two courses (front and back)

Don't know what I was thinking really, shame on me 
It's 4am here now, maybe time for me to go to bed, don't ya think 

But before I go; what ciuwilliam should be doing is to intercept the localiser with the course hold, and THEN engage the approach mode...just a  tiny piece of advice.

Course hold will track the localizer, heading select won't, so why use the heading, since course hold will automaticly align you with the localizer  ???

Somewhere, you'll find plenty of tutorials for ILS landing.
Go to Google and make a search on "ILS landing".
In FS2004, only when you fly IFR, will you get ATC instructions as when to intercept the ILS. Let's say you heading for SFO ( San Francisco).  Look at the airport map, and click on green ILS indication, and note > ILS  frequency. ( 110.70 [I think]  and Course heading  282 for runway 28.. In you aircraft ( medium size for practice) set your NAV1 to ILS freq. and your course Heading to 282. Let say, as you are approaching 4000-ft out, you'll hear to morse ILS morse code. At this point,
the only items activated should be  Nav1,  APPR, and Autopilot. This will line you up with the runway, Your job is to control your speed  and rate of descent....Don't forget your wheels down, and flaps when appropriate. Aim to land +/- on the numbers
Good luck
Bob.*

Heya Sam,

What Bob said about only having Nav 1, APPR, and the Autopilot activated for an ILS landing is correct.  You can use the Nav 2, ADF, and etc. if you wish, however, it's not that necessary.  If you have your Nav 1 set for the ILS your RMI needle will show the direction to the airport.  There's really no need to setup Nav 2 to the same ILS frequency since (if you flip your RMI to Nav 2) it will merely show you the same direction as Nav 1 does.

A GA pilot once told me that he sets his Nav 2 frequency to the closest neighboring VOR to the airport for two reasons.  

The first reason is that if you have a good picture in your mind of where the geographic location of the VOR 2 transmitter is located in relation to your destination airport you'll never get lost.  

The second reason is that if ATC vectors you way the heck and gone out there on a missed approach (and the ATC in FS 2004 has done that to me on several occasions) you may get beyond the ILS Nav 1 range, however, you can still get a pretty good idea of where your destination airport is by reading the VOR 2 needle on your RMI.

To answer your two questions:
[quote]1. How can we know that we have captured the localizer?[/quote]

On approach I watch my HSI gauge on my panel.  The big arrow will show whatever course you have dialed it to.  In the middle of the big arrow is a bar.  It will be offset to the left or right of the big arrow depending on where you are in relation to your destination runway.  When you see the middle bar start moving toward the center of the big arrow you know that you have "captured the localizer".

[quote]2. Do we enter the RWY course heading into the CRS or into HDG? And if we use CRS for APPR then do we desengage the HDG while APPR is on so it follows CRS and not HDG?[/quote]

What I do is lookup the destination runway heading during preflight either by using the FS 2004 Map or [url]http://www.airnav.com[/url].  Well out from approach (about 30-40 Miles) I'll set my autopilot course to match the runway heading.  Whenever you "capture the localizer" and click the APPR button on your autopilot the HDG should automatically disengage.  Once I've "captured the localizer" I [b]then[/b] change my heading to the same as the runway.

That way if I have to do a "go around" I just switch the autopilot back on, flip the heading switch, and I'm going the same direction as the runway.  

Having the ILS frequency dialed into both NAV1 and NAV2 would be necessary when performing an auto-land.  Of course, the aircraft must have that capability.  

Some approaches require you to tune into the nearest VOR like described above.  For example, for the standard approach into SJC, when doing an ILS, you would dial the ILS freq into NAV1 and then dial the San Jose VOR in NAV2.  This is because SJC's ILS does not have DME so you use the VOR in NAV2 to get a DME reading so that you know how far or close you are to the airport.

This is all very interisting to read. All of you are having a lot of fun. It is great!!!!  I love this crazy sim!!!

emergency ILS=:

1- Go straight for the middle of the airport by tracking an on field VOR or ADF.
2- As soon as you think you should, begin your outbound turn from the middle of the field by tracking the vor or LOC outbound. (if the navaid is on or near the middle of the field.) ( the outbound turn ='s the opposite direction of the runway, ILS runway, you intend to land on).
3- Go down to 2000 AGL and go out to 10 NM's.
4- Dial in the ILS freq.  and ID it.
5- turn the course indicator to the runway, ILS, heading.
6- At 10 miles, turn left about 45 degrees and go out for 1 minute.
7- Then, make a right turn 180 degrees and fly until you intercept the localizer.  Engage nav mode if you want.

BADA BOOOM!!!

That is the survival way to do it.  If there is markers, LOM, LMM etc., Even better.

If there is no navaid on the field. Use one that is as close by as you can get it and do the math.

The autopilot behaves very similar to the real thing. If you try and have the AP capture the course when the performance capability of the mechanism is,,, well, it will flail all over the place.

Any Q's  you can ask me.

Squawking 1200     C'YA!  

" Cleared for the BACKCOURSE with maximum penetration speed.  How long  do you intend to hold on top?  HA! HA!"
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