CRJ Frequency Tuning

[colz99 26]

Hi, I've gotten pretty accomodated with the CRJ after coming from Boeings and Airbusses as pretty much everyone does. What I don't exactly understand/have the confidence in is, how do you tune the Radios for a standard ILS approach? I do not mean that I don't know how to do it, but rather the procedure behind it. With all my flights the aircraft pretty much did it automatically, but whats the procedure behind it? For example in the 737 I set the ILS frequency on NAV1 and CRS1 the Course, but on NAV2/CRS2 I tune the suitable settings in case of a missed approach. Now in the CRJ I do tune the frequencies via the Radio tab of the FMS, right? There I only have one NAV and no Standby, right? So in case of a missed approach I would need to enter the NAV Frequency into the FMC pretty fast while going around? Anyway, what would be the procedure in the CRJ? While flying with the FMS NAV Source enabled I can`t see the Course I set, so I'd need to temporarily switch to a heading, then NAV Source VOR1 and then set the course? Would be nice if somebody could enlighten me as to how they do it, or how it is done in general in reality.

[Victory103 24]

Depending on operator, normally the RTU is used to tune the navaid freqs, so you would have the standby. This version of the avionics does not have a Nav2Nav feature whereas if a ILS loaded in the FMS, the LOC freq is automatically tuned. If you have tuned the LOC freq and are in range, you should see the blue "ghost" ILS needles and GS diamond on the PFD. Normally for a missed approach you would switch from raw LOC data back over to the FMS to fly the published procedure.

[colz99 26]

Ok, kinda enlighting. But I've seen that the Aerosoft CRJ does it though?

[giltender 14]

When I am setting up an ILS approach we are usually still in cruise and in "white needles" or FMS navigation.  the RTU's are usually in auto tune mode which means they automatically tune available nav aids in range as a backup to GPS navigation.  I like to use the radio page in the FMS for entering ILS freq's as well as squawk codes simply because its faster. Once you enter a freq in either the FMS radio page or RTU primary spot, the radios switch to manual mode.  We put the same ILS freq in both active NAV 1 and NAV 2 and each sides MFD displays its respective NAV side for redundancy.  NAV 1 on the left, NAV 2 on the right MFD.  you still have a backup freq you can use for a VOR for a missed approach in the RTU.  You get the "preview" blue needles when in FMS NAV mode with a valid and identified ILS freq tuned on the RTU.  Once the controller puts us on a heading for vectors we usually switch to green needles.  Only the 900-NG version auto switches from white to green needles on its own. Let me know if you have further questions

 

Mike