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Airbus A320-214
Aerofly FS Wiki - https://www.aerofly.com/dokuwiki/
LOC and APPR
The localizer button (LOC) arms the localizer capture. If there is an ILS localizer signal the autopilot
will capture the runway localizer and fly towards the runway. It only steers left and right for this, it
doesn't change the vertical mode.
The approach button (APPR) does the same but also arms the glide slope capture. After capturing the
localizer (LOC* or LOC), when the glide slope is intercepted, the autopilot will capture it (G/S*) as well
and automatically descent to the runway threshold in G/S mode. When LOC and G/S are both
captured a fully automatic landing can be performed if the runway allows for that.
At 400 feet above ground the autopilot will switch to LAND mode and no buttons on the flight control
unit (FCU) will change that. The only way to leave this mode is to go around or land. At 50 ft the
autopilot switches from LAND to FLARE. It will automatically arrest the sink rate, retard the thrust to
idle, touch down and roll out. Between twenty and ten feet you need to retard the thrust levers to idle
because the auto-spoilers and auto-brakes only engage when the levers are at idle or in reverse.
Speed/Mach Toggle
At high altitudes the Mach number (speed divided by speed of sound) becomes the relevant speed
limit for the aircraft. E.g. the A320 can only fly Mach 0.85 (85% the speed of sound). At such high
speeds the sound barrier starts to have an effect and creates a lot of drag. For this reason it becomes
