ILS Landings With Cessna 172

1st Official Post

    I am currently trying to master ILS approaches in the Cessna 172 at the Santa Barbara munipal airport. I have made sure that I have activated the 110.3 ILS frequency n the NAV1 radio. From reading the Aerofly web pages it seems that the autopilot should be able to fly the Cessna down to about 200 feet above the runway, but I have never been able to capture the glide slope and descend to near the runway. I can capture the localizer and proceed on course to the runway, but I can never get the Cessna 172 to capture the GS and descend. My plane just fails to descend even when I push approach on the NAV1 radio. The GS is never captured and I never descend. Do you have any idea why the GS is not being captured. I do realize that close to the runway I have to manually land the Cessna 172. Thank you for your help. Tom

    Quote from tnw2933

    I am currently trying to master ILS approaches in the Cessna 172 at the Santa Barbara munipal airport. I have made sure that I have activated the 110.3 ILS frequency n the NAV1 radio. From reading the Aerofly web pages it seems that the autopilot should be able to fly the Cessna down to about 200 feet above the runway, but I have never been able to capture the glide slope and descend to near the runway. I can capture the localizer and proceed on course to the runway, but I can never get the Cessna 172 to capture the GS and descend. My plane just fails to descend even when I push approach on the NAV1 radio. The GS is never captured and I never descend. Do you have any idea why the GS is not being captured. I do realize that close to the runway I have to manually land the Cessna 172. Thank you for your help. Tom

    You have to cut the GS path from below. If there is no error, it should actually work. Press the app button. I haven't done it with the Cessna for a long time.

    • Official Post

    To capture the glide slope you need to intercept the glide slope beam. What does the ILS glide slope needle look like at the time that you press the button? It should be above you. If it's already below the center then you are already too high to capture it and either need to descent faster to catch up to it or circle back around and give yourself more distance before intercepting it.

    Regards,

    Jan

    Many thanks to all who replied. JetPack I believe you have given me the critical information that I needed. I think that I was above the glide slope, i.e. the horizontal line was below center when I pushed apr. Today when I practice ILS approaches I will make sure the horizontal line is above center when I push apr. I really appreciate your taking the time to help me with this. Tom

    This was driving me crazy. Did not know my glide slope needed to start above center. Thank you tnw2933 for bringing this up and helping me move on with my training!

    May I suggest updating the tutorial to make this more clear? Just one sentence would save a lot of grief. :)

    (I have other comments on that tutorial but I'll save it for another day.)