Chart Wise

Teterboro is one of the busiest business aviation airports in the United States, handling 178,000 takeoffs and landings annually, many on IFR flight plans. Most runways offer a straight-in approach, except Runway 1. KTEB’s proximity to nearby Newark Liberty means the best approach available to Runway 1 is the ILS Runway 6, circle to land […]

Localizer-only approaches have been around for decades, providing better-than-VOR lateral guidance while demanding no special cockpit avionics except the standard VOR-ILS indicator common to most airplanes. When it comes to accuracy, full-scale deflection of the course-deviation indicator from the center on a VOR signal represents 12 degrees off course, while a similar deflection on the […]

Most ILS approaches are constructed pretty much the same way. The environment in which a pilot might fly them can vary widely, however, and is important to consider. At an airport like New York’s La Guardia, which sees 375,000 annual takeoffs and landings, the ILS Runway 13 at the airport is used often. These traffic […]

The RNAV GPS Z approach to Runway 3 at Santa Monica is so new (April 2017), many pilots might not yet even be aware of its existence. (Two additional approaches to SMO were commissioned at the same time.) This new approach comes with a handful of restrictions, many of which are significant enough to demand […]

Visual approaches offer pilots an opportunity to remain within the IFR system but fly direct to the airport on their own. Once ATC issues a visual approach, however, responsibility for navigation and terrain clearance is transferred from the ground to the cockpit. Avionics manufacturers recently began adding visual-­approach capabilities to their navigation suites to create […]

In an era of satellite-based precision approaches, a pilot’s understanding of how to find the destination airport using a nondirectional beacon might seem a waste of time. But in the United States, hundreds of NDBs remain in service, according to the FAA. Alaska alone has 70. Flying an NDB approach requires considerably more pilot attention because […]

At first glance, approach plates like Louisville’s ILS Runway 35R are easily discernible to instrument pilots. But during a recurrent training session when an instructor or examiner begins digging into the specifics, sweaty palms can easily follow. Here are a few penetrating questions to test your knowledge. For our quiz today, assume the DME-equipped aircraft […]

Many instrument procedures, such as ILS approaches, allow you to fly your airplane very close to the ground while in clouds. When the decision altitude or decision height is as low as 100 to 200 feet above the ground, it is particularly critical to know the approach procedure and make sure that your altimeter is […]

For many pilots, the only time we’ll ever encounter a DME arc is during instrument training or on a check ride. Still, it’s a good idea to know how to fly one. The good news is that a DME arc is simple once you understand how to execute it. One common misconception many pilots have […]

The RNAV approach is a type of GPS-based procedure that is becoming ubiquitous in general aviation as the FAA continues to roll it out at thousands of airports around the United States. If you’re adept at flying an ILS approach, RNAV LPV procedures (offering “localizer performance with vertical guidance”) should be very familiar to you, […]