Newbie question: how do you know what altitude to be at just before the localizer? I'm flying into McCarran from LAX. So far, I seem to be too high and autopilot isn't taking me in.
Landing Approach Altitude of Vegas?
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Vegas is a bit tricky because you need to descent steeply with the mountains near by. Depending from where you're coming,...
The airport elevation is 2181ft, I'd use +2000ft above that, so 4000 or maybe 5000ft.
I think at final approach fix (last turn on the flight path) you should be 3000ft or less above the airport, so in this case roughly 5000ft. If you are exactly at 3000ft above field elevation for the last turn you are on the 3° glideslope if I remember correctly. It's not as easy to slow down from there, may need to extend the gear a little earlier than usual and maybe use a bit of speedbrake until 2000ft AGL. Then work with flaps only for the last 2000ft.
So if you can try to use 4000ft or 4500ft. That gives you better deceleration and the vertical flight plan should bring you to that Altitude as well.
You can also enable the approach guides for the first test, then you see the planned route as green rectangles as well as rectangles for the approach. If you stay close to them you should be fine... (if the approach doesn't happen to go through a mountain
)If you want to try an easier approach use KSFO runway 28R ILS approach. There the airport is close to sea level and you have all the space you need, no mountains, etc.