Instrument Approaches - I love 'em!

[El Cid Av8or]

Well, I had my first introduction to the wonderful world of instrument approaches yesterday. I love the ILS. It kind of reminds me of those bomb runs they did in that movie "Flight of the Intruder." The VOR approach is cool too seeing as how you can just pretty much turn around to the runway and land (at an uncontrolled field). Now, I may change my mind when I go to do the NDB stuff but for now, I love the ILS and VOR approaches. I need more practice to prefect them but they are still fun. Maybe it helps that I finally found a great instructor. Not that other ones I had in the past were necessarily bad, it's just that I feel more comfortable and confident with this one. My wife even gave a thumbs up as she road in the back seat. That's saying a lot in itself.

Anyway, just wishing I was doing some more approaches today and had to reminisce a little.

By the way...Weather yesterday in CHS was a.w.e.s.o.m.e! A former instructor told me that the weather would probably be great for most of my instrument training seeing as how there were many days that the weather sucked during primary training. Go figure... ya'll have a nice weekend.

 

[bobbysamd]

NDB Approaches

Au contrare. Nail down NDB and ADF principles and you'll derive a great deal of satisfaction from shooting an NDB approach accurately. It can be done. Just start off slowly, in the sim with no wind. Then add wind little by little until you understand wind correction angles, which aren't that much different than VOR.

I took all my instrument training in the airplane (bad idea) and all my NDB training without an RMI. After I flew sims and equipment with RMIs, I felt like a pig in sh-t.

Wait 'til you try an NDB approach that breaks off into a dogleg for the final approach segment. Shoot one of those accurately and you will have done a piece of instrument flying.

Get a copy of IFR Principles and Practices: A Guide to Safe Instrument Flying by Avram Goldstein and Newton Miller, ISBN: 0934754047. This book costs only $11 on www.bn.com. It's very well written and easy to understand, with a great section on NDB work.



Good luck with your training.

 

[C172Heavy]

An NDB approach shot to perfection is a great thing! Just don't forget to sync your DG with the mag compass.

On my instrument checkride I shot a (seemingly) perfect NDB approach including ground speed and time. Only one thing, I forgot to sync the gyro and was about 3/4 mile north of the threshold when the DE told me to look up. Still passed though. Phew!

This is one area that MS flight sim is good for practice. It helps you interpret the instrument and what it is telling you.

Fly safe!

 

[Timebuilder]

Lots of good advice here.

As mentioned above, that DG is critical. I've grown so comfortable with a slaved HSI and RMI that I have to firmly place myself back into reality when I fly a 172.

On NDB appraoches, take every opportunity to check and reset the DG. On some older aircraft, you'd be surprised how often you have to do this to stay on the magnetic heading that you want. I used to have my students make a check of the DG during every segment of the NDB approach when they weren't turning. If you are making the turn from the procedure turn to final, make that your final check of the DG as you finish leveling your wings. You should then be able to associate your magnetic indication with the NDB station, and make an accurate wind correction angle to your heading. Use your heading bug, if you have one. Your wind correction angle should be the same number of degrees difference as the difference from the top (or bottom, as the situation requires) of the ADF indicator.

This may sound like greek right now, but you will see that it makes sense when you fly one of these approaches on a sim.

Enjoy. These first IAP's are real confidence builders when done well.

 

[El Cid Av8or]

Thanks!

Thanks for the tips and advice on the NDB approaches. I haven't gone back up since we did the ILS and VOR approaches so I am mentally going over them in my head again and again. Hey, if you can't fly everyday, you can still dream about it, right?!?!

I do regularly check/sync the DG with the compass since most airplanes I have flown in have had a significant amount of precession error.

I have only flown with an RMI once and it was an educational experience (no, I didn't get lost either ). Can someone give some exact details on how that thing is supposed to be used? I have a basic concept of how it works/how to use it but the real use for it has got me

Unfortunately, I don't know of any sims around Chucktown and my home computer won't handle FlightSim like it needs to (funds go to flight training) so learning on any kind of simulator may not be possible.

bobbysamd: Got an example of one of those NDB approaches that doglegs into the final approach segment? I am sure that there are some interesting instrument approaches of all kinds out there.

Thanks once again.

 

[Andy Neill]

How about this for a little NDB dogleg?

http://edj.net/cgi-bin/echoplate.pl?SouthWest/LAX_nr24R.GIF

 

[El Cid Av8or]

Ouch, Andy, that looks like it could hurt!

Ya'll check out the approaches fixes on this one: http://download.aopa.org/iap/20021003/ne1of4/psm_vor_or_tacan_or_gps_rwy_34.pdf

If you're not an AOPA member, it's Portsmouth/Pease Intl in New Hampshire, runway 16. The ones at Echo Plate don't show the fixes like the one at AOPA though Also, I just noticed that AOPA has their name wrong... it is runway 16, not 34. We learned about that one at the Single Pilot IFR seminar last week. It's pretty funny when you combine all the fixes into a sentence and then through in the one at the top right of the plate.

 

[172driver]

SoCal Approach: Delta 2068 Heavy, turn left heading 230, maintain 4000 until established, cleared for the NDB 24R at LAX.

Delta: Cleared for the whaaat?

 

[Mud Eagle]

SoCal Approach: Delta 2068 Heavy, turn left heading 230, maintain 4000 until established, cleared for the NDB 24R at LAX.

Delta: Cleared for the whaaat?

A response usually followed by penalty vectors!

"Delta 2068, continue left turn now to 180 and contact Los Angeles Center on...."