Approach and ILS Landing

This guide will explain the correct procedures to fly a final approach and conduct an ILS landing.

Disclaimer

The level of detail in this guide is meant to get a FlyByWire A320neo beginner currently on approach to intercept the ILS and land the aircraft safely on the runway.

A beginner is defined as someone familiar with flying a GA aircraft or different types of airliners. Aviation terminology and know-how is a requirement to fly any airliner, even in Microsoft Flight Simulator.

You will also find many great videos on YouTube on how to land the FlyByWire A32NX.
Check out the FlyByWire YouTube Channel as well: FlyByWire on YouTube

Prerequisites

The aircraft is on approach shortly before intercepting the ILS and is still in phase and state DES as per previous chapters.

Download FlyByWire Checklist

Chapters / Phases

This guide will cover these phases:

Intercepting the ILS Localizer
Intercepting the ILS Glideslope
Preparation and Checklist for Landing
Landing
Vacate Runway

1. Intercepting the ILS Localizer

Situation:

Aircraft is in DES phase.
Aircraft is set up for flight < 10 000 ft (seat belt signs on, landing lights on, etc.).
We are within the IAP (Instrument Approach) and either:
- at the altitude and speed from the chart (Final Approach Fix altitude and 250 knots if there are no other speed restrictions on the chart).
- or we are at a heading vector, altitude, and speed instructed by ATC.

At the end of the Instrument Approach, (or by ATC vectoring) we will be on a path to the Final Approach Fix and/or a path to intercept the ILS localizer and eventually the ILS glideslope.

As a last instruction from ATC Approach we are usually instructed to contact Tower ATC when fully established on the ILS localizer.

To intercept the ILS Localizer, we follow these steps:

Verify that the correct ILS frequency is tuned in the MCDU-RNAV page. We find the correct frequency on the approach chart.

Check ILS frequency
Turn on the ILS localizer and glideslope scales with the LS button on the glareshield if not already done before.

Turn on ILS scales
Make sure we are on the correct altitude (5000 ft in this example) and we should not have an approach angle larger than 30°.
Optional: Turn on ROSE LS Mode for the ND (can also be on F.O.'s side). The ROSE LS Mode shows the deviation from the localizer approach heading path.
Activate the APPR phase in the MCDU-PERF page. This is usually automatically done by the aircraft at a certain point during the approach, but we make sure that at this point at the latest it is activated. In APPR phase, the Autopilot together with "Managed Speed Mode" reliefs the pilot of a lot of stress by managing the speed according to flaps setting automatically (S-Speed after FLAPS 1, F-Speed after FLAPS 2, V_app after landing flap selection).
Set SPEED to Managed Speed Mode (push the Speed Selector). The aircraft should now decelerate to green dot speed.
Set FLAPS to 1 at about V_FE -15 knots (but never before speed is below V_FE) for the first slat/flap configuration (CONF1). The aircraft will then decelerate further to prepare for the next flaps configuration. Our target is to be in CONF 1 and at S-speed by the time you need to set flaps 2 (CONFIG 2) before the glideslope intercept (S-speed will be slow enough to set flaps 2).
Turn on APPR in the FCU to command the aircraft to intercept the ILS localizer. The aircraft will keep the current heading until the localizer is captured and guides the aircraft towards the runway. The lateral ILS localizer scale shows the deviation marker moving towards the middle of the lateral deviation scale. Also, the lateral FMA shows LOC in blue (armed). Usually AP2 is turned on at this point to have a redundancy on the approach, for the sake of this guide you can leave it off.

What is the blue-dashed line?

You might ask what the blue dashed line is. It is part of the new FIX INFO feature, available only in the Development version for the time being. It allows drawing distance rings or radial lines from navigation fixes. For this illustration, it helps us to visualize the localizer signal path at 261° into the runway, which we are going to capture with the APPR mode.

Arming APPR

Using APPR also arms the glideslope descent (G/S) and the aircraft will descend as soon as it captures the ILS glideslope signal. Do not descend without ATC clearance and only when directly on the ILS localizer path as only as obstacle clearance is guaranteed. To help with this you can use the LOC button first (only localizer capture) and when cleared for approach press APPR

When we are established on the ILS localizer (the lateral FMA shows LOC in green) we will contact Tower ATC and report that we are established on the ILS localizer (including call sign and runway).

Tower ATC will then give us clearance for teh ILS approach to the target runway. This clears us to descend on the ILS glideslope.

Do not descent without explicit clearance from ATC.

This concludes Intercepting the ILS Localizer

2. Intercepting the ILS Glideslope

Situation:

Aircraft is in APPR phase
Aircraft is established on ILS localizer
Configuration is CONF1 at S-Speed (FLAPS 1)

After ATC has given us clearance for the ILS approach, we can also start descending using the ILS glideslope.

Check that the APPR button is activated on the FCU to arm the ILS glideslope descent mode.

The vertical FMA now shows G/S (glideslope) in blue.

This is a good time to set Flaps 2 (check that the speed is below the V_FE for the next flap setting) as slowing down once we are descending along the glideslope can be difficult. We need the drag from the flaps if we want to avoid letting the gear down too early (which also would help us to slow down).

There is different guidance when to set FLAPS 2 at different airlines or Airbus. But for beginners, we recommend going to FLAPS 2 before starting the glideslope descent. Airbus guidance, for example, is FLAPS 2 during glideslope descent at about 2000 ft, which only works if speed is already reduced enough.

ATC instructed approach speed

The A320 Autothrust will manage speed during approach automatically and will reduce speed further with each flap setting. In real life and also when flying with Online ATC like VATSIM, we need to expect that ATC instructs us to stay at a certain speed (e.g., 160 knots until 5 NM to the runway). In this case, we would use Selected Speed Mode (select a speed in the FCU and pull the knob) until the instructed distance to the runway where we would then go back to Managed Speed Mode and drop the gear then as well as setting flaps to 3 and flaps to full - see below.

The aircraft will start descending when the deviation marker is in the middle (we have captured the ILS glideslope). The vertical FMA will now display G/S in green.

We are now descending along the glideslope. The radio altimeter comes alive at 2,500ft above the ground to display the actual precise height above ground.

This concludes Intercepting the ILS Glideslope

3. Preparation and Checklist for Landing

Situation:

Aircraft is established on ILS localizer and glideslope
Flaps are set to 2

At this point, we would prepare the aircraft for a possible missed approach and go-around by setting the go-around altitude in the FCU (see MISSED APPR procedure in the charts). We skip this for this beginner guide.

To set us up for the final approach we do the following steps:

Gear down: Sometime between 2,500ft and 1,500ft, typically around 5-6NM from the runway.
Turn on RWY TURN OFF lights and set NOSE light to T.O.
Set FLAPS 3 and shortly after FLAPS FULL (always check speed before setting flaps. Otherwise, you might end up in an overspeed situation).
Going FLAPS FULL will reduce our speed to V_app.
Arm Autobrakes (Low when dry, Med in rain or snow or a short runway).
Arm Speedbrake by pulling up the Speedbrake lever (Speedbrake must be retracted to arm).

We need to be fully set up and stable at 1,000ft above the ground.

Cabin Crew

In real life, the cabin crew will have been asked to prepare the cabin for landing during the descent. The exact moment and process might differ between airlines, but most seem to do this when the Seatbelt Signs are turned on during descent (typically at the latest at 10,000ft).

The Cabin Crew will notify the pilots either by a "Cabin Ready" button (A320neo) or by a call to the cockpit (A320ceo) once they are ready and strapped-in themselves.

In the Microsoft Flight Simulator, we simulate this by pressing the CALLS ALL button on the left of the overhead panel. This will set the "Cabin Ready" status as shown in the ECAM and there will be a short announcement playing "Cabin Crew take your seats for landing".

Complete the Landing Checklist

For the landing, we have our hand on the thrust levers for a potential go-around, so we can quickly push the levers forward into TO GA.
We do not move the levers until the last seconds before landing.

This concludes Preparation and Checklist for Landing

4. Landing

Situation:

Aircraft is fully set up for landing as per previous chapters.
Configuration is FLAPS FULL.
Aircraft is at about 1000 ft above the ground.
Wind is calm (no crosswind for this beginner guide).

Although the A320 can do an automatic landing (Autoland) we will do a manual landing as this is more common and also more fun.

For an advanced guide on Autoland, see here.

We MUST get landing clearance from ATC before we actually are allowed to land. Without landing clearance, we must do a go-around (not part of this beginner guide) before touching the runway. Usually, ATC will have given us clearance at this point. Late clearance is rare and communicated to us beforehand.

Next, we turn the Autopilot OFF at about 500 ft above the ground by pressing the AP1 button on the FCU. We leave the Autothrust on, so we don't have to worry about thrust and speed at all (Leaving Autothrust on for landing is common for the Airbus).

Now look out at the PAPIs which guide us vertically down to the correct touchdown point. We want two white lights and 2 red lights.

5. Vacate Runway

Situation:

Aircraft has landed and is still on the center line of the runway.
Speed is < 40 knots.

We look for the next runway exit and slow down to about 15 knots before we start turning off the runway.

We continue rolling forward until we passed the runway entry marker with the full length of our aircraft.

We can now safely stop the aircraft and do our "After Landing" checklist.

If ATC did not already contact us on the ground, we would contact them now to let them know we have vacated the runway. They will give us taxi instructions, so we can continue taxiing to our gate once we have completed the after landing tasks.

After landing tasks in simulation

In real life, the A320 will have two pilots which can actually do things in parallel. Talking to ATC, taxiing the aircraft and doing the after landing tasks. In the simulation we are typically alone, so it is perfectly fine to stop once we have fully vacated the runway and do these things one after the other. Talking to ATC and getting taxi instruction, do the after landing tasks and checklist, taxiing to gate.

This concludes Vacate Runway

Continue with After Landing Steps

Last update: August 12, 2023