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In X-Plane 11, when landing an A330 on 04R at Nice (LFMN) on an ILS approach, the aircraft is brought perfectly to the end of the runway but because this is an offset ILS the aircraft is at about 2° to the centreline.
My question is at what time and with what technique (rudder or aileron) should the aircraft be aligned with the centreline? I always seem to over-adjust and struggle to avoid wing tips touching the ground.
Looking at my old approach plates, the ILS for Rwy 22R at KJFK of 24 JUL 1998 had an inbound course of 220°. The runway centerline was 224°, so a 4° difference. Decision height was 250'AGL.
In the 747, if we broke out before the decision height and had a clear look at the runway, we would in a shallow coordinated turn decrease our heading so as to intercept the runway centerline course visually and then we would visually turn onto and track the centerline.
The difficulty was when it was foggy, and all you could see near or at the decision height were the approach lights but not the runway sufficiently to visually acquire its course. You knew you had to correct to the right, but the tendency, at least for me, was to over correct because the approach lights were seemingly considerably off to the right, the more so the lower you were when you first saw them.
In the 747 you can safely use a 5° bank without dragging anything. As I remember the first thing to drag would be an outboard engine pod, but whatever. Thus, even up to the 100' call of the radar altimeter, a coordinated shallow bank would get you lined up, but you needed to be quick about it as your groundspeed would be around 160kn.
The first time I made the approach under those minimal conditions, I did indeed over correct. My choice going into the flare was enough left rudder and aileron to get the nose to the runway heading and then maintaining the 5° bank to slip back to the left. Having made the over correction that first time, I was careful not to repeat the mistake.
It's been nearly 20 years since I last shot that approach. I looked at the approach plate of 08 MAR 2012 on the Internet, and I see that they've straightened things out. The approach course is 222°, the runway centerline course 223°. Decision height is still 250' AGL.
I imagine you are asking this on the context of a home simulator game. Nevertheless the flying technique in the real world should be applicable.
(...) avoid wing tips touching the ground
My advise is, practice crosswind landing. Specifically, practice the crabbing technique. Use tiny but frequent inputs on the rudder for heading adjustment. Ailerons should be used to maintain wings level.
I always seem to over-adjust (...)
That is because you are using one big adjustment. You should be using tiny but frequent adjustments on the flight controls.
And practice in a Cessna 172 first. Yes, even if your goal is to land an A330 in the simulator game. Then gradually move up to faster airplanes.
