Hello all.

During my last flight, I've made a slight mistake that cost me my ILS approach. The issue isn't the error I made but how the plane reacted when I tried to correct it.

On my approach to Athens (LGAV) the briefed approach was to runway 03R and that's what I programmed in my FMS. However, ATC had other ideas and I noticed on ATIS that the active arrival runway was actually runway 03L. In my rush to change everything, I messed up the approach selection in the FMS and given I was flying solo (of course), I didn't have corroboration and was overwhelmed with the procedures. This was my error, I kept the ILS-Z to runway 03R on the FMS, but I did tune in the correct frequency and runway course for the ILS-Z 03L on the physical ILS radio.

When I noticed the wrong orientation while still on FMS navigation, I understood my error, but thought I could save the approach by doing a side step to 03L and activate the ILS in LAND mode, because I knew for sure (and confirmed) the frequency was correct.

To my disbelief, even though I confirmed again the frequency and course, the LOC or GS didn't capture, in fact the ND remained in V/DEV mode, forcing me to a pure visual approach.
Watch here (timestamped to the moment). Please apologize for the unintentional plug:

https://www.youtube.com/live/Qslc0LIGhXw?si=vtSM241bhdZMPMOj&t=7353

I've done this several times, especially with non direct approaches to ILS in aircraft that have separate ILS/VLOC modes from the FMS, like the Fokker 70/100, for example.

For me, this sounds like a bug, where the airplane is only reading from FMS data, "expecting" the same ILS frequencies and course of the pre-briefed approach.
That or this is just how the real airplane works. Please clarify if you can.

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by theglideslope

3 hours ago, theglideslope said:

Hello all.

During my last flight, I've made a slight mistake that cost me my ILS approach. The issue isn't the error I made but how the plane reacted when I tried to correct it.

On my approach to Athens (LGAV) the briefed approach was to runway 03R and that's what I programmed in my FMS. However, ATC had other ideas and I noticed on ATIS that the active arrival runway was actually runway 03L. In my rush to change everything, I messed up the approach selection in the FMS and given I was flying solo (of course), I didn't have corroboration and was overwhelmed with the procedures. This was my error, I kept the ILS-Z to runway 03R on the FMS, but I did tune in the correct frequency and runway course for the ILS-Z 03L on the physical ILS radio.

When I noticed the wrong orientation while still on FMS navigation, I understood my error, but thought I could save the approach by doing a side step to 03L and activate the ILS in LAND mode, because I knew for sure (and confirmed) the frequency was correct.

To my disbelief, even though I confirmed again the frequency and course, the LOC or GS didn't capture, in fact the ND remained in V/DEV mode, forcing me to a pure visual approach.
Watch here (timestamped to the moment). Please apologize for the unintentional plug:

https://www.youtube.com/live/Qslc0LIGhXw?si=vtSM241bhdZMPMOj&t=7353

I've done this several times, especially with non direct approaches to ILS in aircraft that have separate ILS/VLOC modes from the FMS, like the Fokker 70/100, for example.

For me, this sounds like a bug, where the airplane is only reading from FMS data, "expecting" the same ILS frequencies and course of the pre-briefed approach.
That or this is just how the real airplane works. Please clarify if you can.

Hi,

I just tested this myself and had no issues. Looking back at your video, it appears that you had the incorrect LOC frequency set.

Thanks!