AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - June 2015 - 86

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ON INSTRUMENTS

Head-down
to head-up
The ILS visual transition
BY THOMAS A. HORNE

This book will help you:
* Learn all pvt & comm maneuvers
* Reduce the cost of flight training
* Avoid the accidental stall or spin
* Learn "seat of the pants" skills
* Roundout and flare accurately
* Fly complex airplanes
* Understand attitude flying
* Never fear a crosswind again
* Teach more efficiently as a CFI
* And much more!
508 full color pages
1,250 pictures and illustrations
Book - $59.95/eBook - $44.95
Audiobook $89.95/Digital $69.95

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IN THE LAST INSTALLMENT of "On
Instruments" (April 2015 AOPA Pilot), we
left off at the final approach fix inbound
and gave some advice on how to best track
the localizer and glideslope indications
along the final approach course. But that's
just one element in flying a safe ILS-especially as you get closer to the runway.
CONFIGURATION CONTROL

For the safest approaches and transitions
to landing, it's best to fly stabilized flight
paths. This means configuring the airplane
so you fly each approach at a constant airspeed and descent rate. With practice, you
can memorize the steps.
As a hypothetical example, a typical
high-performance piston single might
be slowed to 110 knots or so prior to ILS
intercept. This might involve a power
reduction to about 17 inches of manifold
pressure with one notch of flap deflection. Once the localizer is centered and
the glideslope needle is one dot above the
bull's-eye, the landing gear should be lowered, and a power reduction to 15 inches
of manifold pressure should bring the
airspeed to 100 knots. Maintain this configuration all the way to decision height,
then make further power reductions so as
to arrive at the runway's aiming bars at the
proper landing speed.
For a typical light fixed-gear piston
single, a power setting of 1,600 rpm with
one notch of flaps ought to yield a 90-knot
approach speed. But whatever you fly-
even if it's a jumbo jet-the goal is the same:
Fly a consistent configuration. Once you
set up the airplane, you're free to devote
your energies to tracking the ILS. You
don't want to be fiddling with the power
and flaps as you get closer to the surface,
flying in the murk.

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86 | AOPA PILOT June 2015

THE TRANSITION TO VISUAL

The tension ratchets up the lower you
descend on the ILS. Your pitch and heading corrections become smaller. Your
altitude is about to reach decision height
(the minimum altitude to which you can
legally descend without seeing the runway
environment). And let's say the weather is
at minimums. While your eyes are glued
to the instrument panel, you keep sneaking peeks outside in hopes of seeing the
approach lights and runway ahead.
There are several types of approach
lighting systems (ALS) that can help, and
you should have a familiarity with all of
them. They can range from those with
sequenced flashing lights (the "rabbit")
that lead you to roll alignment bars and
runway end identifier lights (the most
elaborate is the ALSF-2 lighting system),
to simpler ones with more modest flashing light systems (such as the MALSR).
Whatever ALS you face, you must be
able to see it-or the runway threshold,
the runway touchdown zone, the runway
lights, the visual approach slope indicator (VASI), or other visual cues that make
up what's defined as the "runway environment"-before you can continue your
descent to landing.
Moreover, you can't legally descend
below 100 feet above the touchdown
zone elevation using the ALS unless the
red terminating bars or the red side row
bars also are visible and identifiable.
Although this last rule would technically
apply only to those shooting Category II
ILS approaches-the ones with 100-foot
decision heights-this article addresses
only Category I ILSs. There are six other
different ILS systems and procedures (see
"Tracking Tips," facing page), all with
lower minimums than the Category I.
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AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - June 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - June 2015
