Transcript Mastering ILS Approaches Featuring: Bob Nardiello 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.
Mark: This is the first in a series of Approach Workshops by Bob Nardiello. In this workshop, Bob provides some tips for flying a successful ILS. So Bob, what are some basic considerations for flying a successful approach? Bob: Mark, I d like to talk about a couple of things in particular, the first being positional awareness, which includes using back-up navaids. The second is airspeed control. I ll discuss these in the context of the ILS 6 at Bradley, which is KBDL. This is pretty much a standard ILS, which has standard minimums, a decision altitude of 200 feet, and a minimum RVR of 1,800 feet or a half mile. Let s talk a little bit about what is important to successfully perform this ILS. This ILS really starts, probably 10 to 20 miles prior to getting to the airport. It is absolutely essential that the pilot understands where he is relative to the airport, where he is on the approach plate. If he were to put his finger on the approach plate, where is the aircraft? Why am I so concerned about knowing where I am on the approach? Well, knowing where you are on the approach pretty much tells you where the localizer is relative to the airplane. It gives you a real good feel for which way ATC will be turning the airplane assuming you are on radar vectors. It will also give you a pretty good idea of how much altitude you will need to lose before you get into the intermediate segment of the approach. In other words, the segment where you are intercepting the localizer outside of the final approach fix. This allows you to plan your rate of descent. Obviously, if you have an airplane with a multi-function display, a GPS-equipped airplane with all the bells and whistles, it is pretty easy to tell where you are. If you don t have that kind of equipment in the airplane, there still are a number of ways to determine where you are on the approach. Even if you have GPS equipment, you should use back-up navaids for positional awareness. Here s why I m saying this. I fly technologically-advanced aircraft, a glass cockpit type of aircraft. I have had, in my experience, just about every piece of equipment imaginable fail in an aircraft, including the latest WAAScertified GPS equipment. It is important that we all remember that we must maintain the capability of flying the airplane with only raw data. And, what I am talking about is the capability to fly the airplane with a VOR, to identify intersections via VOR, or perhaps DME if you have DME capability. The fact that you have GPS in your airplane, and may also have a glass cockpit does not ensure that you will not have problems with the equipment. Yes, the equipment makes life a lot easier, positional awareness is much easier with this Copyright PilotWorkshops.com 1
kind of equipment. But, the basic skills of flying the airplane with raw data can t be replaced. Your GPS could have a problem. For that matter, the whole GPS system could go down at some point in the future. Remember, don t let your basic flying skills degrade through your inability to fly via raw data from your nav equipment. Let's get back to how you determine where you are on the approach plate. Looking at our ILS 6 at Bradley, let's assume we don t have a multi-function display. If you notice, the Bradley VOR 109.0 is located on the airport. If we have a second nav available in the airplane, which almost all of us do have available to us, we can tune the second nav to the Bradley VOR, and center up the needle with a to indication. If, for instance, the needle centers with a to indication at zero niner zero, that will tell us we are west of the airport. As a result, we can anticipate that the localizer is southeast of us, and we will be making left turns to the final. Another good bit of information would be how far out we are from the airport. DME-equipped aircraft will be able to determine the distance from the Bradley VOR. If you notice, the Bradley VOR does have DME. So, we will know our position relative to the airport from an azimuth standpoint, and we will also know our distance. If we don t have DME, we can get an idea of where we are by using radials off of, let's say, two VORs. In this case, you see that the Hartford VOR is in reception distance of the final approach course on this ILS. So the Hartford VOR would be another VOR we could use to determine what radial we are on. Those are two ways to know where we are. As I said a moment ago, another consideration on the approach is airspeed control and that really begins about 20 miles from the airport. We want to begin to slow the airplane down well away from the airport. Why do we want to do this? Well, it will give us more time to think, it will also put us in a better position to descend when the time comes to descend. Many Bonanza drivers think their airplane will not fly below 130 to 150 knots. This isn t true. As a result, they make life very difficult for themselves intercepting the localizer at high speed. Slow your airplane down. A Bonanza will fly fine at 100 knots. Get the speed down, put out ten degrees of flaps. This will assist you in any descent you have to make, and this will give you a lot more time to think. Particularly flying single pilot IFR, it is important that you understand where you are and you have a clear picture of what is going to happen next. When you are surprised, that is when confusion develops. So, you need to know where you are and plan on what is going to happen next. Copyright PilotWorkshops.com 2
For instance, if the Bradley VOR centers at zero nine zero, and we find we are west of the airport, and we are at 5,000 feet because ATC has had to hold us at that altitude because of traffic that is in closer -- we know looking at this approach plate that we need to be prepared to descend from 5,000 feet to 1,800 feet, which is the intermediate altitude. Knowing how far out and knowing what speed we are flying, we can in our head make a quick computation of the amount of altitude that we will need to lose -- and knowing how far out, we will also have a rough idea of how many minutes we will have to do it. So, we will be prepared to plan our descent. When ATC says descend and maintain 2,500, this will not come as a big surprise to us, because we will know that the intermediate altitude is 1,800. We already have planned in our head to lose 3,200 feet. So, certainly losing 2,500 feet will not come as a big surprise. So, slow your airplane down sooner rather than later. Use flaps. Use the landing gear if that is appropriate in the airplane you are in. Some airplanes have a higher landing gear operating speed than they do flap speed. So, if the landing gear will help you slow down, use it. Do not be afraid to use it. Don t be afraid to slow down your airplane. Just because others on the approach may be doing 170 to 210 knots -- might be jet traffic for instance -- the fact that you are going to fly the airplane at 100 knots is of no consequence to anyone else. ATC will sequence you appropriately. Let me talk about a few additional tips that can lead to a more successful ILS. Turning onto the final, remember that at this point you need to be thinking about landing the airplane. As you turn onto the final approach course -- the localizer in this case -- you need to be thinking about dropping the landing gear if you have not done so already. A good place to do that is at glide slope intercept, but certainly not beyond glide slope intercept. As you are going down the glide slope, you want that landing gear down, and you want your airplane configured for landing. That means if the airplane requires fuel pump -- fuel pump on. It means flaps at approach, if they are not there already. So, planning and knowing what is going to happen next makes things work a lot more smoothly. As you are coming down the glide slope, half way down the glide slope is not a good time to be looking at your approach plate, trying to determine what DA is, what decision altitude is in your case for this approach. You should know this already. You should be thinking about what kind of approach lighting system you are looking for. You should know this as well, and you should be prepared to look for that approach lighting system through the windshield of your airplane. Now, another place that has caused problems, and I see it with students periodically, is at DA. At this point, assuming an approach to minimums, and Copyright PilotWorkshops.com 3
assuming you have the approach lights runway environment in sight, you are going to be transitioning to visual conditions, and you are going to be landing the airplane visually. It is important to remember that decision altitude in this case occurs approximately a half a mile from the runway threshold. So, assuming your airplane is trimmed properly, no action is necessary relative to the power when you reach decision altitude. Don t upset the airplane. Let it continue down the glide slope to the runway. And, as a point of reference, the glide slope intersects the runway plane at approximately a point where the two white boxes are painted on the runway. That is the touchdown zone, where those two white boxes are placed and painted on the runway. So, let the airplane continue down the glide slope a half mile to the runway threshold. When you reach the runway threshold, you will be approximately 50 to 60 feet above the runway, and in this particular approach ILS 6 at Bradley -- you will be crossing the threshold, if you are on the glide slope, at 51 feet above the runway. This is a good time to bring your power back to idle or whatever works well for your airplane, apply landing flaps, and land the airplane. Copyright PilotWorkshops.com 4