ILS Frequency Discrepancy

After a missed approach into KSLC the other night I realized that the problem was that I had a discrepancy between the FMC ILS frequency and the one that FSX expected. This list of discrepancies only got larger with every Navigraph update, something I began doing when FMC runway numbers didn’t match those at some airports.

I did some reading and it appears that the work-arounds are either to use some secondary gauge or app that shows the FSX ILS frequency, or pause the game to check the FSX airport on the FSX map. The other, more realistic yet complex option is to change the FSX ILS frequency of the stock airport itself. In reality it’s not the stock airport changing, but a new scenery object that will replace that on the priority list.

I chose this last option, downloading the free app ADE. Surprisingly, this was a rather seamless solution after installing the ADE and the FSX SDK (they need to work together). After loading the stock airport into ADE I selected the erroneous ILS and corrected the frequency, then compiled the file into a BGL file, placing it into the addon/scenery folder. FSX automatically loaded this over the default airport and the correct frequency works as expected with no other changes that I can note to the original airport or addon textures (GEX).

Addon airports should not need this, as the developers should be able to correct these when they make the airport – however the addon airports can also be loaded and altered by ADE in a similar way.

Additionally, the ADE is a powerful tool that can make many types of corrections. While I usually get sweaty palms when making such changes to my system - this one was fairly seamless.