"autoland" Tutorial

[trazcer]

Silent_Bob taught me how to do this, and I don't think that it's here on the forum so I'll share a little information with you on "Autolanding".

The airspeeds, flap settings, and altitudes are approximate. You may have to change them slightly to fit your flying style, but these marks worked for me.


1. While at your departure point, select your destination and enter it into the GPS receiver on your plane. Now, look at your map and move the viewing area so that the destination is inside of the view pane. Zoom in so that you can see which runway that you would like to land on and double click the airport area until the airport information window comes up. In this window you can get all of the information needed to plan your approach, along with frequencies, and altitudes for the airport. Once you have all of the information, click OK and go back to the GPS receiver. Then press the "PROC" or procedure button located on your GPS and "SELECT APPROACH" should be highlighted and flashing. Hit the "ENT" or enter button to select the highlighted text. Now, use the left-right arrows on the 500 series or the down portion or section of the big black button of the other GPS receiver. Sorry, can't remember the model number for that right now. Scroll down till the runway you want to land on is highlighted and then hit "ENT" or enter. Whenever "VECTORS" is highlighted and flashing, hit enter again and then once more when "Load" is flashing. After you have done that, then hit the "FPL" flight plan, or route button on the other model GPS. This should bring you back out to the main screen of the GPS. Ok, that's all for the GPS setup for now.

2. Now you need to set your flaps to around 25, arm your auto-throttles and adjust your air speed to 250 KIAS, altitude to FL100, and vertical speed to around 1300 FPM in your auto-pilot. You do NOT need to change the course or heading. Also, make sure that the NAV/GPS selector switch is switched to GPS and that your auto-brake is set to RTO.

3. Throttle up and proceed down the runway and when you reach 130 KIAS, press CRTL+SHIFT+G. This arms your TO/GA "takeoff-go around". You should become airborne and when you do, arm the auto-pilot, and turn on your IAS button, and your ALT button. Now with that done, you should be flying straight and climbing. *Make sure that your landing gear is up and your flaps are up as well*

4. Once you go past 2000 FT, go ahead and press the NAV button. If you selector switch is on GPS, you should start turning towards the GPS's plotted flight path. With that done, all you have to do is sit back and admire the view until you reach FL 100.

5. Once you are at FL100, you can go to any altitude you wish at whatever speed you like, you are only limited as to which aircraft you are flying. Just change the readout in the appropriate boxes in your auto-pilot and there you go.

6. For this next step the distances will vary as to the size of your plane, so if you are in a smaller/slower plane you can do this closer to the destination. In a bigger/faster plane, you want to do this further away from the destination. At
approximately 100nm out, hit the "PROC" button on your GPS receiver. Use the large arrows or up/down portions of your selector knob to highlight "Activate Approach". Once this is highlighted, hit the "ENT" or enter button. The plane
should now be turning either to the left or right, depending on which direction you selected to land and the direction you are coming from. The altitude should remain the same, since you are only turning.

7. Now is a good time to go ahead and activate your NAV1 radio to your ILS frequency. You should have copied it down when you were looking at the airport information window, but if you didn't, just go back and get it.

8. Now it's time for the descent. You can do this however you like just as long as you are approximately 2000 FT above the altitude of the runway when you are 10nm out. Also your airspeed should be around 160, with flaps set to your liking and landing gear down. Make sure that your auto-brake is set to 2,3, or MAX. Depending on the length of the runway.

9. This is where it gets fun. When you are lined up with the final heading and approaching the runway, wait till the aircraft is on the RED flight line and switch your NAV/GPS selector switch to NAV. Now instead of using the GPS for guidance, it's using the ILS to line itself up with the runway. Verify that your ILS arrows are in the attitude indicator.

10. Now you should see a point, "the outer marker" where the line changes colors from red to white. As soon as you pass this point, you need to press the "APP" or approach button in the auto-pilot. The plane should basically land itself now.

11. Upon touchdown, turn off the auto-pilot, and all other flying aides except for the auto-brake. *Also don't forget to throttle back on your joystick* If you don't, you'll fly right off the runway.

12. That's it. Everything should work if it's set correctly and you perform these tasks at the appropriate time during the flight. *Remember, you may have to play with the speeds, altitudes, and settings on your plane to suit your flying style* This is just a rough guide to get you started with "Autolanding".

Good luck and if you have any problems, I'll try my best to help. groudon39

[Raligard]

I've tried that in a 737 and it kept 'weaving' back and forth across the ILS approach line and never really lined me up with the runway as it swung from left to right and back again. It is very informative though and maybe I didn't do something correctly. I'll try again later.

[Chiaradia]

yeah, this is fun, it works fine... but i only use it in bad weather conditions... thanks for the tutorial Groudon

[Pu239]

Hi!
Great tutorial, glad it was pinned!
groudon39 ran me through it on Railgards server and it works!
Good Job groudon!

[djtom12]

Very helpful tutorial Groudon

[eHaM2004]

Thats mighty handy thanks

But i'm gonna stick to doing it myself

[Bernhardt]

Yup im one of those who got the chance to be tought by groudon on rali's server... this is a very usefull tutorail and when you get the hang of it you will enjoy it... been doing it for a while now luckily groudon is a patient man so he is still helping me a lot

Great job on the tutorial groudon

[funtown34]

Yea, it works alright. I just try to avoid using autoland at all times (even bad weather).

[Guest]

when i look at planes landing well..on the approach i say 2 my self...they cant be doing that manually no way then can keep the plane PERFECT LIKE THAT without the auto land i meen i tried 2 do autoland but manually that is the HARDEST thing ever i think real pilots like boeing and so on pilots use that up untill the last minute then switch it off and land them selfs like when their like a few feet away like 1 nm away i know they probably do do all that manually but i like 2 tell my self its auto land and when i did it manually i had it on clear skies and absolutly no wind and i didn't get it and i know they practice but jeez how do they get it perfect every single time? well il still say 2 my self its auto land up to a point...well i should be saying approach because i think the landing is manually lol WOW i wrote alot i should stop now lol

[GRIF]

Well Groudon, looks like youve got my method down to a tee except Ive made a few changes here and there, I no longer go to the Map view but access all my information through the GPS. Good work on the tutorial though and glad I could help you out with it cause it seems that its helped quite a few others. Well happy flying to all and I'll see ya on the server.

P.S. Any questions on this method can be directed to myself or Groudon, we're happy to help

-SilentBob-

This post has been edited by SilentBob82: Dec 10 2003, 01:43 PM

[trazcer]

Hey SilentBob,

Yeah, I gave you props for teaching me how to do it. I know that I didn't really word it exactly how you taught me but I tried to get it close enough and explain it as fully as I could.

To everyone else,

You don't have to use the autoland if you don't want to. I just put it up here on the forum for you to reference in the event that you may want to try it out. I don't use it all the time, just when I want to take a break from flying/landing. Like I said, just trying to help other new pilots like myself grasp the procedures that are used in this. Happy flying to all and to all a good night.

Happy Holidays, groudon39

[Criccemannen]

Well, they don't do it perfect all the times... They crash sometimes you know...

[PSYCHO]

haha good point...

[Raligard]

I was playing with the ILS system last night for the first time using APP auto piloet and found some interesting things that will keep you in good shape an 100% of your landings.

1) Make sure that you are lined up inside the approach cone (both horizontally and Vertically) BEFORE you enable the APP button and auto pilot. If you are not it will not hold the proper altitude or heading

2) Control your throttle. Watch your airspeed as you lower your flaps and adjust it accordingly. Approaching at about 160 knots and then decreasing to between 140 and 150 just before touchdown seems to be just about perfect.

(This experience comes from using the ILS on the Boeing 737-400)

I was doing this last night and was able to land my plane perfectly while watching the entire approach and touchdown from the tower view. (Great for recording those landing videos)

Just another couple of cents (If I keep giving up $0.02 so frequently I'll be broke soon!)

Happy landing!

[alio]

thanks for the extra info there

[Guest]

I've tried that in a 737 and it kept 'weaving' back and forth across the ILS approach line and never really lined me up with the runway as it swung from left to right and back again. It is very informative though and maybe I didn't do something correctly. I'll try again later.

I've been having this same problem... what did you do to correct it??

[TaraKendall]

Thanks for the tutorial, can't wait to try it out!

[Finchie]

I tried the tutorial out and I havent been able to do it. The plane approached the airfield as i had hoped but when it started to loose alltitude it was lined up with the side of the Runway. I think I may have got the ILS approach thing wrong could you please show me which is the ILS frequency on the map, because I aint got a clue.

[Lendrik]

[Lendrik]