Practice Approaches Featuring: John Krug Copyright PilotWorkshops.com, LLC. This material is available to members of the PilotWorkshops.com web site, which is the only place it can be legally obtained. If you received this material from any other online or commercial source, please let us know by sending an email to webmaster@pilotworkshops.com.
Bob Martens: John, it s said that practice makes perfect. With this thought in mind, let's spend a few minutes looking at practice instrument approaches and how we can better integrate this very important element into our proficiency flight training. If we want to get the most out of ATC, maximize our training time, minimize our interruptions to the system, and enhance safety, what are some of the preliminary items we can do to get the most out of our effort? John Krug: Well, Bob, one of the first things that you want to do is to develop a plan; a plan for how you are going to go out and do your approaches. The plan should involve both yourself, as the person who is actually practicing approaches, and either your safety pilot or the instructor. Pre-flight planning is important. Know what approaches you want to do and take a look at NOTAMS, so that you don t go out and try to ask for an approach that s out of Service. Look at the Airport Facility Directory - the green book - for restrictions on practice approaches, certain times of day, and certain airports. For example, on Sunday mornings a lot of airports will have restrictions on practice approaches. Knowing the time of day, we talk about going out to an air carrier or busy GA airport on a Friday afternoon during CEO rush hour. You're probably not going to get your approaches. On a Saturday afternoon when traffic is lighter, it will be a lot easier. Those kinds of things are important. You need to know when to go, where to go, and a sequence and how to do it. Know what you want and clearly convey that to the controller. What are some of the things that you ve heard on your end of the microphone that lets you know that it s going to be a struggle with this pilot? What are some of the bad things that we want to avoid, so we get the most out of our time? Not clearly communicating to the controller exactly what you want. For example, an initial call saying, I want a practice approach. The controller comes back and says, Which approach do you want? - playing the 20 questions game - How will the approach terminate? Missed approach. Copyright PilotWorkshops.com 1
How will the next one terminate? It s back and forth, back and forth. Follow the AIM. The AIM has very good phraseology for how to conduct an initial call up as a VFR request, and clearly communicate exactly what you want. I want to do an ILS 34 approach, missed approach, followed by a VOR Alpha full stop. I have Alpha, whatever the ATIS is, and that s it. You can do all of that very clearly and succinctly. Don t you have letters to airmen at some facilities, and stuff like that? How would I access that information? If I want to go into a busy place, how do I know what their local procedures are? Each facility, each Approach Control that provides services for aircraft desiring practice approaches is required to semi-annually publish a letter to airmen. They are distributed at the FBOs, flight schools, and you'll see them on bulletin boards. They are supposed to be mailed to every airmen certificate holder, however, due to the budget constraints and things like that, in the last few years the FAA has not been able to mail those out. One of the easiest ways to get that information is to call a facility during normal business hours and ask to speak to a trained specialist or a quality assurance specialist and ask them, Do you have a letter to airmen governing practice approaches in this area? So, John, if I want to get the most bang for my buck when I come on the frequency with you, what would you like me to lead with? What do you want from me? After we've established the initial contact, after you ve made the VFR request and the controller comes back and says, Call sign. Go ahead. Reply to him with position, altitude, whether you have the ATIS code or not, and what your intentions are. A perfect example would be Five miles south of the VOR, 2,500 feet, information Bravo request ILS 34 approach followed by a VOR alpha full stop. Everybody knows exactly what we re doing at that point, clearly and succinctly. The controller then gets the request and the next thing the controller has to think of is, What impact is this going to have on my traffic flow at that time? Copyright PilotWorkshops.com 2
Is that approach consistent with the traffic flow? Who will I have to coordinate with? Is this a towered airport? What are my coordination requirements? Are there any other controllers, sectors, or facilities involved? What are their requirements going to be? The approval or disapproval will many times be based upon that coordination and the impact it will have on a controller s traffic flow at that point. The controller also has to consider how the approach is going to terminate. If it s a missed approach and it s going to be the opposite direction to the traffic flow on a climb-out, he may have to do some coordination. He may either have to deny the approach or come up with some alternate missed-approach instructions to minimize the impact. John, I remember we had an interesting discussion at one of our CFI workshops about the difference between a low approach and a missed approach. Exactly. A pilot may very easily interchange these two concepts. From a controller perspective, these have two very different meanings if you ask for a low or missed approach. Right. Even before that, one of the things that we have to establish is whether or not you're even entitled to a missed approach. How would you know whether you're entitled to a missed approach? The Airmen s Information Manual and the Controller s Handbook talk about differences between conducting an approach on an IFR flight plan versus a VFR practice approach. A VFR practice approach does not automatically authorize a missed approach, unless the controller specifically authorizes it. Someone practicing an instrument approach VFR, without this specific authorization, at the missed approach point your services terminate. You ve now just become another airplane. Depending upon where you are in the traffic pattern at that point, the tower controller is then going to issue some instructions. Normally, if you request the published missed approach when you're VFR, the approach controller will then coordinate that with the tower controller and they ll coordinate some sort of missed-approach instructions. Copyright PilotWorkshops.com 3
That missed approach may terminate in a low approach, in an option for touch-and-go, full stop, or the tower controller may just issue a heading and tell you to turn out and climb away. The difference between a missed approach and a low approach is really what happens after the missed-approach point, and what you ve been cleared to do at that point. Think ahead as you would in a chess game. We have to think several moves ahead if we want to get what we re looking for. And again, clearly communicating with the controller. What do you want me to do with the missed-approach point? If the controller says, Cleared for the option, then we both know exactly what we re doing. If the controller says, At the missed-approach point, start a climbing right turn to some altitude and some heading, then we re not cleared for the low approach. At the missed-approach point, we need to start our turn out and do whatever the controller instructions are. John, one of the concerns from my perspective as a former safety program manager is the fact that pilots, when out flying practice instrument approaches, they think that ATC is separating them from all traffic and they don t have to look out the window. Can you tell us, from the air traffic perspective, who you are separating us from and who you are not, so we do a better job of seeing and avoiding? Certainly. First, any time that you're in VMC you know that whether you're on IFR clearance or a VFR, it s still your responsibility to see and avoid all other aircraft. That being said, if you're on an IFR flight plan and IFR clearance you're provided standard IFR separation from all other IFR traffic. IFR traffic. IFR traffic. Depending upon the type of air space, if it s a Class B or Class C, there may be some separation between VFR aircraft in that air space also. If you're outside in Class E air space, it s basically just traffic advisories on a workload-permitting basis. Copyright PilotWorkshops.com 4
On an IFR flight plan, you're also going to be separated from the terrain. You're going to be given an altitude to maintain until established on a published segment of the approach. A VFR aircraft, on the other hand, is provided no separation until the approach clearance is issued. You may be on vectors for quite some time as a controller is sequencing you for the approach with other aircraft. At that point, no separation is being provided. At the time that the approach clearance is issued you are provided basically half-ifr separation. You're provided 500 feet vertical and whatever the appropriate longitudinal separation is. If you're following another aircraft, you would be three miles behind him while someone else may be going over or below you at 500 feet. That separation ends at the missed-approach point. John, what do you do if you are out there practicing instrument approaches and you think that ATC has forgotten you? There has been a long period of silence or you're getting ready to go through the final course. What are my pilot actions? What should I be doing in the cockpit? Speak up! The controller may have a plan for you that involves a long vector. In the situation you brought up, the final approach course is coming in, it goes through, and you haven't heard from your controller. Key the mic and say, Approach, did you want me to intercept the final? Maybe you turned your volume down. Maybe you inadvertently switched frequencies or something like that, and the controller is trying to call you. The big thing is to speak up. Whenever you're in doubt about anything, speak up! Obviously, we re going to be doing some of these practice approaches in an ATC environment and some in a non-atc environment. From a pilot or safety perspective, what are the differences that we have to be most aware of if we really want to do this safely and effectively? The differences between a towered and a non-towered airport everything is ATC controlled but it s towered versus non-towered and will depend upon several factors. Copyright PilotWorkshops.com 5
One factor is, is there a letter to airmen that authorizes practice approaches at a non-towered airport and are any separation services provided? Typically, separation services will not be provided at a nontowered airport. You ll hear the phrase, Practice approach approved. Report procedure turn inbound, or something like that. There is no separation services provided. At that point, you'd be released to the CTAF to report completion of the approach. ATC has very little responsibility or separation requirements for something like that. That s the easiest type of approach from an ATC point of view. If you move up to the towered airport, ATC now has some separation and coordination requirements to enhance the safety of the operation, because you're now being separated from other airplanes. At a non-towered airport, you are just kind of tossed into the traffic pattern and, Call me back when you're done. From a realism point of view, I think it s actually better to work with the tower because you get more familiar with talking and doing all of the different things. Practice approaches are practicing for the real world. It s practicing for real IFR. The more that you can stay in the system and work within it, the more valuable the training experience is. This is why I encourage a lot of people to practice under actual IFR clearances. File a flight plan, go through the whole process, get the clearance from Clearance Delivery, work with Departure Control, and work with the approach controller. The impact on the system is minimal and I think the training benefit to be gained from something like that is huge. Just highlighting once again and going over what you said, because I think most pilots are disinclined to file a flight plan. Exactly. It s a lot more realistic and the training benefits are very, very positive if you do. Whether it s VFR or IMC, go ahead, file a flight plan, and practice as realistically as possible. Copyright PilotWorkshops.com 6
Exactly. The only caveat in that is bearing in mind that on occasion, you may be denied a practice approach because you are IFR and you have the higher separation requirements. In that case, it s going to be your call. Do you want to cancel, do this under VFR, continue with the training environment, or go somewhere else that s less busy? Just to carry over from my military experience; as you know when we were flying out of Westover, 100% of our flights were on an IFR flight plan. Always. It didn t matter what the weather conditions were and there was no down side to it. Everyone thinks, Oh, it s a lot more work. It s a lot more effort. They're not going to let me We had full and total cooperation. Once again, I think the training is definitely maximized when that occurs. That s the whole reason why we re out there; to learn how to be instrument pilots. A couple of specific issues here that I think are relevant. If I m out there VFR, practicing instrument approaches, and I m talking to ATC; I'm on an assigned heading and altitude, and I start to go into a cloud. If I'm talking to ATC and I m VFR, can I go into a cloud or not? Absolutely not! All the cloud and visibility requirements still pertain. Even though you're on a VFR practice approach; it s still the pilot s responsibility to advise ATC. It s very important to remember whether you are VFR or IFR. That s the beauty of filing the IFR flight plan versus going out and practicing instrument approaches in VFR conditions. The whole reason is to get in the cloud, so do it legally. Excellent. There s another specific situation that has happened to all of us. We re out there practicing and we start getting task saturated. I'm flying along and I'm starting to fall behind. How can I best serve the system and help myself in a tough situation without making a mess of everything? Copyright PilotWorkshops.com 7
Advise the controller that you need more time. One more turn in the holding pattern, a long downwind. The controller would much rather see and hear you say that than bank on putting you into a hole in the sequence and you're not ready. You don t have the localizers set up, you go across the final, and now you ve botched the pattern up completely. We d rather hear you say, I'm not quite ready yet. Give me a longer downwind, or something like that. Speaking up is very important. Speaking up is very important. Great! Can we talk a little about the role of the safety pilot? I think a lot of times we look for somebody saying, Hey, I want to go out and practice instrument approaches, so I ll grab Fred. What do we really want to do to bring along the best safety pilot? What s the safety pilot s first name? Safety. Okay? That s really the reason you're there. The person practicing approaches can't look out or may not be very well skilled in approaches; so either as an instructor or as a safety pilot, you're responsible for a lot of things. You are responsible for see and avoid. You're responsible for aircraft control. If the person under the hood starts getting the airplane in a situation that s unsafe, you need to make sure that you're on top of that. That s why you need to be rated in the airplane. You need to have a medical to assume control of the aircraft, if necessary. It s also to manage the overall operation. Are we going through the localizer at 90 degrees? Are we converging on other traffic? Are communications not being answered? Is the other person task-saturated so that they're not being effective? Maybe the safety pilot s role at that point is to call a timeout and go do something else until they get back and organized. You bring up another point. There clearly needs to be a good discussion before the flight between the pilot flying and the safety pilot, as to when a friend tells a friend he s having a bad day? Copyright PilotWorkshops.com 8
Absolutely. Remember that as a safety pilot you're a required crewmember, so you have to share in the responsibility of the safe conduct of the flight. Another very important thing is after the flight. A debrief. The safety pilot s name is going to go in the logbook. The safety pilot should have an opportunity to discuss it with your friend or whoever you're acting as a safety pilot for. What things went right? What things went wrong? How can we improve next time? Good debrief. Aren t we all infinitely wise when we re watching someone else fly? [Laughter] Absolutely. Copyright PilotWorkshops.com 9