Thanks to everyone for their words of wisdom. The problem with me was my scan was flawed but I now have a simple system that I think helps fly the ILS. Over the last week my approaches have been better and there is not so much of a tendency to chase needles any more. I am learning to be patient!
My scan is as follows. I start with the AH then move to heading/localiser and glideslope and then to my ROD on the VSI. This I do over and over again so that any problems that arise can be dealt with quickly by making small changes to heading or ROD. I also scan the ASI (but not every cycle) and also the altimeter every so often and more so when approaching DA. If the aircraft is trimmed out with the correct manifold pressure setting then the speed should remain more or less constant with the odd half or one inch added on or taken off. I have decided not to fly the glideslope using trim. The max heading changes I use are 5 degrees outside the OM and 2 degrees inside it. My instructor keeps banging on at me about picking a heading to fly and sticking to it. For example, if I select 224 degrees then fly that not 226! He is teaching me to become hypercritical about heading control. Roll on a small change then wings absolutely level to assess the correction before making any further changes. This is sometimes difficult to do on a bumpy approach but I try my very best anyway. I try to use the heading bug as a reference but sometimes with the wind backing as you descend from the 2000’ wind reference it is not always correctly set and I don’t like to fiddle with it on the ILS because it increases the workload. Flying without a bug is harder as it becomes more difficult to set a reference heading and hold it unless you keep reminding yourself out aloud which heading you are flying.
To control the aircraft in azimuth I use both the ailerons and rudder to ensure co-ordination, otherwise I tend to skid down the approach. The ROD I calculate using 5 x ground speed, which made for an interesting 800ft/min ROD into EMA yesterday! Earlier last week one of the airfields we use to shoot ILS approaches asked us to do an SRA (for controller validation or something) and that really hammered home to me the need for small 2 degree changes and then to really hold heading like you life depended on it! It really worked!!
