An experienced newbie with one probem...

[andyconor]

Hey guys as you can see i am new around here, but I would say half experienced-ish with X Plane, can do the simple stuff, manually land small planes, haven't quite mastered the visual approaches for big airliners yet though.

I am having one re-occurring problem with the Airbus a320 by JARDesigns. I can start up, take off, climb, cruise and descend without any problems, but whenever I use ils to approach the runway, my plane keeps banking in one direction and therefor spinning on the spot, it's very weird and I can't get my head around it because I have had no problem with ils landings in the past.

I use the MCDU to tune to the ils, turn autopilot 2 on once at around 2,000 ft and then click the approach button.

Just ask if you need any more information and I'd be happy to give as this has been driving me crazy.

Also, if you have any advice on landing heavy metals manually, that will equally be appreciated.

P.S are there any forum rules? Couldn't find any. Apologies for the incredibly poor structure of the post!

Thank you

andyconor

[SwissCyul]

So you have the ILS indicator already on your ND, right?

If you are approaching the runway you click on approach mode. Then you click on ILS so your ILS is displayed on the ND(Button next to the FD light). The plane should follow the glideslope if you have the right frequency AP 2 is only a STBY mode. You always have to have AP 1 also running. Maybe you have a hold in your MCDU. 

 

If this is not working i don't know what the problem is. Maybe you can write a more detailed explanation of what you are doing. 

[andyconor]

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it. In answer to your first question, I do yes. I will try a few different things that you suggested doing slightly differently to what I usually do. My checklist that I made up using the tutorial videos on their website is as follows for approach and landing:

 

 

Seatbelt Sign = On

 

Sent Descent Altitude = 2,000ft?

 

Landing Lights – On >10,000ft

 

BARO – As Req.

 

Select Heading Mode (unsure of this)

 

Approach Phase Activate

 

Approach Checklist

 

Approach Button On

 

AP 2

 

Flaps 1

 

Capture Glide Slope

 

Set TOGA Altitude

 

Flaps 2

 

Gear Down

 

Speed Brake (as req.)

 

Nose wheel light arm

 

Flaps 3

 

Flaps 4

 

Landing Checklist

 

Speed Brake (as req.)

 

Auto brake medium

 

LAND

 

Reverse Thrust

 

@ 20 Throttle Idle

 

Ground Spoilers 

 

Please let me know if you want anything else. 

 

Also subscribed to your channel

 

Thanks

[SwissCyul]

Seems right to me

So you have your flight plan entered and follow it to the airport. When you get the ILS signal you select heading mode in direction of the runway or 90 degree towards the runway. So you have to be sure that the plane doesn't follow the route anymore. The spinning is really strange because i have never heard of this. It might be your plane looking for the ILS signal. The checklist seems correct to me, so you can follow it just like that. 

You can just try these tips and then take off from your airport, do a quick fly and then try to land with the ILS system. When it works, you make a go-around after Touch down and fly again until you can make a landing. Like this you will get used to the process and you won't need a checklist after a while

I know this from the A330 flight training but i think the A320 is quiet similar. 

 

I hope you can figure out something so it works,

 

SwissCyul

(Thanks for subscribing my Youtube Channel )

[andyconor]

Thank you ver much. Hopefully I can get a flight in today and let you know how I get on

[SwissCyul]

Alright, good luck  

[andyconor]

Whilst I'm here (just starting X-Plane up) has anyone got any helpful tips re lining the plane up to the centre line of the runway when flying manually?

 

Thanks

 

andyconor

[SwissCyul]

So you mean that you are flying manually and you want to perform a manual landing?

With ILS signal or not? 

Because lining it up is not that hard except you have extreme crosswinds or something else. 

[andyconor]

Yeah I would just like to be able to confidently line my plane up manually without ils now because whenever I land I usually go to the left or right of the runway not down the centre

[SwissCyul]

Well, you have to find your own technique and practice it many times so you get used to it

The best thing to do, is to go a bit left of the centreline while approaching. Because you are probably on the left side, you will be perfectly aligned on touchdown. Or you go every few moments while landing in the middle of your cockpit and look if you are aligned correctly. But that is not a good thing to do because you will mess up the landing like this

Also if you have no PAPI's available the best thing to do so you arrive at the correct altitude, is to always have the same height between the runway and your autopilot panel. Like this you will be never to high or to low on landing. That means you just focus to keep about the same height while approaching the runway. 

And don't give up after a few hard and not aligned landings, because real world pilots need about 300-500 hours of flying experience to get used to landing smoothly and correctly  

[andyconor]

Okay, thank you. One last thing, whenever I try and lower my altitude (manually, using my joystick), I descend too much and sometimes crash before the runway, how do you descend just the right amount without too much? I often find myself using pitch trim but that doesn't really work because there is a massive delay between me pressing the button and the pitch changing up/down.

Thanks

[SwissCyul]

I kind of explained that in the post before. You approach the runway and then you look in the front and concentrate always on the height between your Autopilot panel and the runway. If you keep the same distance until landing, you will be landing directly on the threshold. With that i don't mean the actual distance, only the distance you see with your eyes out of the cockpit. Or if your runway has PAPI's you can just follow them. So 2 white lamps and 2 reds is the right altitude, 3 whites and 1 red is to high, 1 white and 3 reds is too low. And don't overcorrect on approach. Just minor corrections by pulling/pushing slightly at your joystick. Pitch is difficult to use if don't know what value you need. Another thing is the speed. You can loose altitude fast if you are too slow. 

 

Hope that helps,

SwissCyul  

Edited March 21, 2014 by SwissCyul

[andyconor]

Okay thank you

[SwissCyul]

No problem