Approaching the airport

Pro Member Chief Captain
Manuel Agustin Clausse (Agus0404) Chief Captain

Hello people! Yes, I'm having a problem when trying to approach the airport. Well, I can say I have a few problems 😛
1) I'm cleared to land on runway 16 in Zurich, Switzerland. I know the runway heading is 160 then. So, when I'm approaching the airport, I make my last turn (160 degrees) to intercept the runway and I end up in a bad approach. So I have to turn and try to put the aircraft is the right position. How can I improve that? I know, practice, practice, practice and more practice. And that's what I'm doing every day. Sometimes, instead of turning 160 degrees, I turn 157 degrees or whatever, but the approach is still bad. Any help?

2) During approach, am I suppose to have the aircraft straight? I mean, try not to have the nose up or nose down. Ok, when I'm like 10 nm (or more) away from the airport, my speed is 160 knots. During this time, my flaps are set to 30 degrees of full, landing gear down. At 160 knots, the aircraft has its nose up, and when I try to level my altitude goes down. What am I suppose to do?

This is getting long. I'd like to have some help with this.
Don't worry, I land safely and I approach the airport very nice, but problems are there, and I want to fix them.

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Pro Member First Officer
George Leach (CDR) First Officer

If you find that you are way off on your approach and you are only practicing you can pause and ether go to the map or FS nav and move the AC back to make the approach again.
For training porpoises At the 10 mile out , pause and save flight.
This way for training only you can use the saved flight over and oner
till you have learned your skills.
CDR

Banned

Pro Member Chief Captain
Manuel Agustin Clausse (Agus0404) Chief Captain

I can use the Slew Mode too, but just for practice. I don't want to use that feature while I'm making a flight. I want to make it realistic.
But thanks for your answer!
Any other answers?

Pro Member Chief Captain
Alex (Fire_Emblem_Master) Chief Captain

Firstly, do you know ILS?

If you use ILS, you'll be able to fly into the airport with precision. The other thing you can do is enter a traffic pattern and circle to land at the runway you want to.

If you want more info on the traffic patterns, its in the Flight Lessons/Learning center of FS04.

During approach, slow down gradually, do not have full flaps and stuff at 10 NM away, thats way too early. You should try and stay at 200KIAS untill around 5NM away, then slow to 160 KIAS. At 3NM away, drop speed down to landing +10KIAS. By this time, you should be lowering flaps on schedule, based on the aircraft you are flying. Gear should only come down once you turn final

Pro Member Chief Captain
Manuel Agustin Clausse (Agus0404) Chief Captain

Thank you for your post!

Yes, I know ILS. I know I don't need full flaps and stuff at 10 nm away. It's early, yeah. The part I didn't know was the approach at 200KIAS until 5 nm away from the airport. I hope my aircraft will slow down quick so I can intercept the glideslope with no mkore than 170 KIAS.

Well, I think I don't have anything else to talk about. Now, I have to give it a try.
Thanks for your post! I really like.

Pro Member Chief Captain
Alex (Fire_Emblem_Master) Chief Captain

One more quick thing. When you get below 10,000 and 250KIAS (Varies from aircraft to aircraft) Extend the flaps the first degree. This usually only extends the slats, which will give you enough of a lift to keep the nose down when you are flying level (remember they create lift as well as drag), and, you can slow down faster that way.

Good luck!!! 😎

Pro Member First Officer
leadfoot First Officer

I usually intercept the glideslope at 250 kts and 6000' agl. I get on the slope and stabilize, then I set out my flaps one notch at a time on 1000' intervals, I set my throttles so that my speed decays slowly as I descend. Once I'm at 15 deg. on the flaps I'm doing 215 kts, then the gear comes out. Now I need to increase power or my speed will fall off fast. I set my last flap setting at 1000' agl 30 deg. By then I'm at 170 kts. I then let it bleed slowly to 150 kts. on short final I maintain 150 kts until I flare at 50' agl.

Pro Member Chief Captain
Alex (Fire_Emblem_Master) Chief Captain

No wonder you're Leadfoot!

Pro Member First Officer
Rambunctious First Officer

Agus0404 wrote:

Hello people! Yes, I'm having a problem when trying to approach the airport. Well, I can say I have a few problems 😛
1) I'm cleared to land on runway 16 in Zurich, Switzerland. I know the runway heading is 160 then. So, when I'm approaching the airport, I make my last turn (160 degrees) to intercept the runway and I end up in a bad approach. So I have to turn and try to put the aircraft is the right position.

Assuming you're using a precision approach, ie ILS, it helps to understand the cone-like nature of the beam. The closer you are, the less tolerant it is to course dev/s.

If you're off glideslope, a procedure turn is usually all that's nec., and altitude is more sensibly controlled with throttle, rather than elevator.

Luckily in FS9 there aren't any wacky German noise control regulations (which, IMHO) are anticompetitive to the point of lunacy, but I digress.

Agus0404 wrote:

2) During approach, am I suppose to have the aircraft straight? I mean, try not to have the nose up or nose down. Ok, when I'm like 10 nm (or more) away from the airport, my speed is 160 knots. During this time, my flaps are set to 30 degrees of full, landing gear down. At 160 knots, the aircraft has its nose up, and when I try to level my altitude goes down. What am I suppose to do?

Try playing around in airspace, and come to terms with the fact attitude, descent rate, and speed are all interrelated, and as others have said, generally use a higher flap seting to lower the nose. Don't forget to add power, tho.

PH Guest

Agus I think firstly that although it is runway 16 the QDM (runways magnetic heading) is 156* so this will throw you slightly off course if flying 160*. Also it depends what the wind is doing as you will of course need to account for this. As suggested fly the ILS and if you want to do it visually keep the ILS tuned and keep checking it to see if you are on track while looking at the runway as well.
As far as speeds go it is difficult to tell you what IAS to fly without knowing a/c type.
For the 737 classics between 53k and 63k kilos:
Flap up 220kts
Flaps 1 200kts
Flaps 5 180kts
Flaps 10 170kts
Flaps 15 160kts
Flaps 25 150kts
Do NOT use the flaps as speed brakes!
Select flap 1 when decelerating through the flaps up speed. Extend flaps to the next setting when 15 to 20kts above the next minimum speed. Leave flaps 10 gear up until on the localiser with the glideslope between half and 1 1/2 dots high. At this point gear down, flap 15 and arm the spoilers. (landing checklist as well if you have one!) You can also set the GA alt in the altitude window. From here go to flap 25 when speed allows then flap 30 and if required flap 40 on schedule with the speeds...think max speeds are placarded near the gear lever. Aim to be stabilised 1000ft AGL gear down, landing flap selected, correct speed, checklist complete. I would not personally look at less than a 5 mile final this gives you about 1500ft to sort things out and as you know things happen fast! Although in the real world there are usually two crew!

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