User Guide

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As the needle moves closer to the center of the instrument,
you’ll notice that the autopilot annunciations change: HDG dis-
appears, and APPR ARM changes to APPR CPLD: the system has
“coupled” to the localizer, the left-right signal of the ILS. Notice,
too, that the airplane has turned so the course arrow is now
straight up and down: we’re flying right at the runway. Depending
on the model autopilot installed, we may also see a GS ARM
annunciator.
By now, the airplane should be stabilized at around 100
knots; adjust power as necessary if it isn’t. Now watch the glides-
lope needle, which will eventually “unpin” from its position at the
top of the indicator. As it gets within about a dot above the center
index, lower the gear. By the time it’s down, the needle should be
centered. The ALT annunciator will go out, the GS (or GS CPLD)
annunciator will illuminate, and the airplane will start down the
glideslope.
At this point, we’re about five miles from the end of the run-
way. Speed will have stabilized around 90 knots-the gear added
quite a bit of drag, but we’re also going downhill now! Turn on
the emergency fuel pump. In about two and a half minutes, you
should see the approach and runway lights appearing out of the
gloom ahead. As you approach the threshold, you’ll hear the “dit-
dah, dit-dah” of the middle marker. Disengage the autopilot, and
as the end of the runway passes under the nose, ease the throttle
to idle, raise the nose to the horizon, and wait for the chirp of rub-
ber on concrete.
LET’S GET DOWN
We’ll head back for the airport for a couple of practice ILS
approaches. On the first one, we’ll let the autopilot handle the
chores so you have a chance to see what’s going on; on the sec-
ond, you’ll do the flying. If you like, you can set the simulator for
moderately unpleasant weather-let’s say a ceiling of 500 feet and
a mile visibility.
We’ll start a descent manually, so you can get used to reduc-
ing power, then slew the simulator so we don’t waste too much
time. Disengage the autopilot, then bring the throttle back just a
bit, reducing power by only one in. Hg, to 31 inches. Check your
watch, or start one of the stopwatches in the nav receivers or the
ADF: it’s a good rule of thumb, on these highly-tuned tur-
bocharged engines, to reduce power at a rate of no more than one
in. Hg. per minute until getting well below the cruising range. This
avoids overly rapid cooling of the engine. What if ATC needs you
to descend quickly? Drop the gear and/or the flaps!
In this case, though, we won’t worry about cracking the sim-
ulator’s electronic cylinder heads; pull the power back to about
25 in. Hg., get the airplane trimmed for a descent, and put the
simulator in slew mode to get us down to, say, 2000 feet. Place us
about 15 miles from the airport, near but not right on the recipro-
cal of the active ILS runway (i.e., if we’re going to land on runway
28R, we should be southeast of the airport on about the 120-
degree radial).
As you exit slew mode and regain control of the aircraft, set
up a low cruise (24 in. Hg./2200 RPM) and engage the autopilot
in HDG and ALT modes. Fly a heading of about 315 degrees. Set
the course arrow in the HSI to 280 degrees and tune the #1 nav
receiver to 111.7 mHz. The center of the course arrow will deflect
to the right, indicating that we’re left of the final approach course,
and the glideslope needle will deflect upward, showing that the
glideslope is still somewhere above us.
Now press the APPR button. The autopilot will annunciate
APPR ARM, indicating that this mode is “armed,” but it’ll contin-
ue to follow the heading bug for the moment. Keep an eye on the
HSI. As the needle “unpins” from its full deflection, extend the first
notch of flaps. As long as we’re going to let the autopilot fly the
approach, this is all we need to use.
Flight Instruction
Flight Instruction
SimTip
To cheat by “slewing” the simulation, press the S
key on your keyboard while using the directional
keys to control the aircraft that you are flying. The
longer you hold the arrow key the quicker you
will skew in that direction. Q slews up. A slews
down. Numpad 5 stops the slew motion. Press S
again to exit slew and return to flight.