ILS approach - no glideslope

Have you ever seen a glideslope with your IFD installed, when flying an ILS?

Do you have a second NAV radio? If so, do you see a glideslope indicated there?

* Orest

Let’s say I am flying along without a flight plan in the IFD 540. I’m flying in the vicinity of an airport that has an ILS. Can I tune the ILS frequency then manually select LOC (instead of GPS) as my guidance source and manually fly the Glideslope?

Or is the unit designed such that an approach must be loaded as part of a flight plan in order for the unit to behave as a good old fashioned ILS/VOR receiver would in similar circumstances?

FWIW - I started this preflight check just over three years ago after noticing during a VFR flight that my GI-106A would not depict VHF signals (VOR & ILS) even though the IFD540 and GI-106A indicated VLOC and the IFD540 properly decoded the VHF stations. I could also aurally decode the VHF stations through the IFD540. Cycling between GPS and VLOC did not resolve the issue; additionally, all GPS indications on the GI-106A were normal. After landing, a restart of the IFD540 corrected the issue. 

My working theory was that there was a rare error in the boot up "handshake" between the GI-106A and the IFD540 that caused the issue and I just wasn't aware of it until I switched to VLOC for the first time near the end of that flight. I suspected that if VLOC indications were verified before flight, they would continue to work without issue until at least the next IFD540 restart. I certainly did not want to be surprised by this issue while IFR, hence the start of my preflight check.

I have since caught this very rare issue once or twice out of hundreds of preflight checks. The last time was over a year ago and I believe prior to IFD s/w 10.2.3.1. In both instances, the issue was corrected with an IFD restart. Additionally, I have never seen the VLOC indications on my GI-106A not work properly during flight after they had been verified to work properly prior to flight.         

Yes, it works just fine that way (entering the localizer frequency and selecting VLOC on the IFD).  Absent other navigation sources (VOR, DME, NDB, etc.), you may not be able to locate certain initial or intermediate fixes on the approach, but if you know you're on the right course to intercept the localizer, then it works just as it would using a non-GPS navigation radio (such as a KX-155).  And you don't need to be on the final approach heading as the localizer coming alive indicates when to turn to the final approach course.  The glide slope indicator will become active at the appropriate point and you would follow it down to the DA just as you would if the approach were loaded in the IFD.

JF