There are always lots of questions on here about landing – either with ILS or manually.  None of us minds helping, but it leads to a lot of repetition, and it is also difficult to get over what is basically a visual exercise in words.  So I thought that I would fly a full landing approach and touchdown and take some screenshots.  

I flew it mostly on full auto, partly to allow me to concentrate on taking shots, and partly because that’s how I’d recommend people to start anyway.  Turned out that there was so much to explain that it was best to split it into three separate posts.  I hope it helps people, anyway.

INTERCEPTING THE LOCALISER BEAM AND GLIDESLOPE.

This shot shows a default 737 at 2,500 feet and 220 knots, 21 miles out of Miami Intl., inbound to Runway 9L. ILS systems only have a range of 30 nms., so I've waited until I'm well within that distance to start my landing preparations.

I’ve already:-

1. Asked ATC for landing clearance on the appropriate runway, called up the map, clicked on the airport, and noted the ILS frequency, runway direction, and airport height;
2. Entered up the ILS frequency (110.3) in NAV1 on the radio stack on the right (entered under ‘Standby’ and clicked across to ‘Active’);
3. Set the runway heading (92 degrees) on the VOR1 dial at lower left ('COURSE' on the autopilot sub-panel);
4. Pressed ‘B’ to zero the altimeter at the right pressure;
5. Pressed ‘APP’ on the autopilot, leaving the ‘Heading Hold', ‘Altitude Hold’, and 'Speed Hold' on;
6. Made sure that the GPS/NAV switch (left end of autopilot sub-panel) is set to ‘NAV’
7. For good measure, pressed ‘Alt – Aircraft – Visual Flightpath – Rectangles’ to bring up the flightpath.

The magenta markings on VOR1 show that the course to the runway is to my left; that I am closing in on it diagonally, on a course of 50 degrees; and that the glideslope (shown by the ‘arrowhead’ on the right) is ‘live’ and that I am well below it. The Visual Flightpath is already visible on the windscreen ahead.



In the next picture, the autopilot has turned off the ‘Heading Hold’ and is lining us up with the localiser beam. We are still comfortably below the glideslope and ‘Altitude Hold’ is still on.



Now the glidepath indicator (magenta arrowhead) is moving down and is past the last notch. The DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) on the VOR dial shows that we’re 10.1 miles out.  I’m reducing speed to 180 and putting down 5 degrees of flap and the gear.



In a moment the autopilot will turn off the ‘Altitude Hold’ and start the aeroplane down the glideslope.

LINING UP, FLARING, AND LANDING.

At this point in the ‘tutorial flight’ I made a mistake! And thought that, in fairness, I’d better leave it in! I was so busy taking shots that I forgot about the wind – and so found myself drifting slightly off the runway line. In fact, since speed, trim, and attitude were all balanced, it was very easy to drop the starboard wing a fraction and work her back on line.  Which I'm doing in the picture. Note how LITTLE banking is required – and don’t forget to give her time to respond, don’t hurry things.

The thing to notice in this shot (which is one reason I left it in) is how much wider and more welcoming the runway looks close in.  You almost can't miss! Which is why you don’t have to stare grimly at it from miles away, and try to line up perfectly from ten miles out.



In the final moments, you should have one hand on the stick and the other on the throttle lever - and I have the two top buttons on my joystick, right under my thumb, assigned to 'trim up' and 'trim down' as well. That way you can respond quickly, in a completely coordinated way, if need be.

As you cross the threshold, cut the throttles.  From now on, you’ll need to be sure to look at the whole runway – not just the part just in front of the nose.  There’s a ‘magic moment’ in landing the real thing when your ‘top-down’ view changes, and the ‘ground perspective’ cuts in – suddenly it’s more like driving a car than flying an aeroplane.  FS models this effect very well.

One trick I should mention – the panel height in the shots may be lower than you’re used to.  I like a good view, and I tend to use ‘Shift-Enter’ to drop the panel a notch or two.  You can do the same, obviously – but don’t monkey around with it too much, try to stick to one setting once you’ve found what suits you best.

'Flaring' simply means that as the ground perspective kicks in, just before you touch down, you raise the nose (only a fraction, mind) to reduce the rate of descent. And then hold it there while the speed drops off and the aeroplane settles.

I can’t TELL you when to flare – picking the exact moment takes practice, and it varies between aeroplanes, with the larger ones taking longer to respond than the smaller ones. The important thing is not to overdo it, and start back up again; to prevent this, note the position of the runway end relative to the panel, and don’t let the panel come up too high.  Also, dart a glance at the ‘rate of descent’ gauge, try to get it up from the ‘600 feet/minute down’ it’s been at through the descent to ‘200 feet down’ or so. It’s just below the altimeter in the 737; in the photo below it’s showing about 150 feet/minute, so I see that, taking screenshots notwithstanding, I got it just about perfect for once!

Generally, about flaring, later is usually better than earlier; and once you’ve flared, hold the position, hold off, hold off…..until she settles gently, of her own accord. Gets easier with practice.

I reckon this shot shows that 'ground perspective' I mentioned quite well, as I'd hoped.  Be quite difficult to stuff it up from here, wouldn't it?



There you go – I live to fly another day. ’/’ for the spoiler, hold down ‘F2’ for reverse thrust ('F1' to turn it off), joystick trigger for brakes……..hope it’s been useful.



A couple of suggestions:-

1. Rather than starting fresh all the time, save a flight about twenty miles out, roughly where this scenario started, and use it for practice. It saves a lot of time; and you can also substitute other FS aircraft or new downloaded ones, and try out landing them in familiar surroundings.

2. You can also use a practice flight to work your way up to landing manually, instead of relying on the ILS. First turn off the auto-throttle early on, and practise handling the power yourself.  When you have that taped, turn off the autopilot early as well, and fly the approach on full manual control (remember, power to regulate the rate of descent, trim to regulate the speed). By all means leave the Visual Flight Path on at first, you'll find that it helps a lot. And, above all, relax, avoid sudden movements of the controls, and give the aeroplane time to respond.

It's a great relief once you get the hang of landing without the 'aids' - after that you can go anywhere in FS. For advice on manual landings (particularly dealing with crosswinds) see -

http://205.252.250.26/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1129643666;start=0

- or go to 'Flight Simulator 2004 FAQs', Item 12 - 'Manual Crosswind Landing Tutorial with Screenshots').

Beginners, by all means ask any questions you like.  ‘Old hands’, comments/additions welcome – but remember that I’ve tried to keep things simple and basic to help people who are just starting out. PLEASE don’t rush in recommending too many of the ‘short cuts’ those of us with more experience have developed, that will only confuse the new fliers.

Thanks nexus, appreciated.

Only thing is, if I'd realised before how much there was to explain, I might have thought better of it! 

What a marvellous production FS2004 is, though.  SO close to the real thing.

Gets my vote, make it a sticky, perhaps it should be called 'IFR Landing Tutorial with Screenshots' though to allow for visual, procedural and backcourse approaches.

By all means, pete - honoured! 

Thanks, wji - I'd be surprised, though, if I could teach someone with an instrument rating anything. I never got that far, I got married instead, which was the end of flying lessons!

You're right in what you say. However much flying you've done, every flight, and especially every landing, is a new 'adventure'.

good thread, you nearly mucked up your landing though! 

ya nav, it was quite a helpful guide. I'm new to the forums but im not a total noob, I regularly go flying in Pipers (dont know the make) from Brize, and play on fs a lot.

i understand pretty much every part of fs and my only difficulties were trying to stay on the centre line when landing, and getting the rate of descent rate, i've pretty much mastered that so for the time being their isnt really anything im having major problems with.

im okay with the physics side of it too (i.e how to counteract wind, working out the right for speed f or certain weights etc), but i could do with some help on jet take off, as i always seem to get the nose up with the plane now climbing at all, jsut flying along the ground with the nose up for ages.

I understood your guide, its fairly simple, but you could have expanded on bits and pieces and described why and exactly what you were doing, so a total noob would be able to perfect their landings.