Instrument Flight

As much as we might like to carp about the occasional circuitousrouting or ground delay, this much is certain: The U.S. air trafficsystem is arguably the best in the world. What’s less certainis how it got that way. How did we advance from the tenuous airmailroutes of the early 1930s to the sophisticated IFR system […]

Many civilian pilots are aware, generally at least, of ground radarsbeing used to guide airplanes to landings through the clouds. The militaryhas used ground control approach (GCA) systems for many years. By the endof WWII and during the Korean War this was an established way of helpingpilots. Radar systems housed in trailers could be relocated […]

If you’ve looked at the instrument written booklet lately, you’llnotice that although there are some new questions here and there,not much has changed. The written is heavy on regs, theory andweather but light on the real meat-and-potatoes grit of IFR flying.This is especially true of how the feds treat SIDs and STARs. Consider, for example, […]

Cessna Three Four Uniform, cleared direct to the Lost at or above3000 feet, cleared for the VOR 24 approach at Podunk Muni, report the procedureturn inbound. The above is a routine clearance that’s probably issued a hundred timesa day by various ATC facilities. You’re instrument rated, so we’ll assumeif you hear a clearance like this, […]

Depending on your vantage point, there are lots of ways to viewthe FAA. From the inside looking out, we imagine the agency itselffavors the beehive view, which would have legions of workersshuffling important paperwork, all in the efficient advancementof air commerce. We’re kind of partial to the rock crusher analogy:The thing is just one big, […]

The results of the New York TRACON’s Safety Survey “Are YouReady for METAR?” are in, and the results are unanimous:No one around here knows anything about METAR! Well, in the interest of safety, the mystery of METAR can nowbe revealed. METAR is the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization)meteorological format for Aviation Routine Weather Reports. Inorder […]

The NDB approach is generally considered one of the tougher itemson the flight test for the instrument rating. If you asked abunch of instrument-rated pilots to list their favorite approachequipment, you’d probably get a list something like this: # 1 — ILS# 2 — LOC only (no glideslope)# 3 — VOR# 4 — NDB The […]

During a typical IFR flight, you probably make lots of decisionswithout much forethought. One of them is the altitude to fileand fly. Unless there’s ice around or known rocks in the cloudsor an intense head or tailwind, what difference does it make? All you have to do is look at the published MEAs and be […]

Near the end of a long trip, actual IMC and perhaps flown withno autopilot, being vectored to final can be a great relief. Butthere’s a downside, too. A pilot anxious to get established onthe approach and on the ground might be lulled into allowing positionawareness to lapse at a time when he or she can […]

If you’re like most instrument pilots, you spent a lot of trainingtime flying full approaches, muddling through procedure turnswhile you tried to figure out just exactly where the final approachcourse really was. Unfortunately, all that training wasn’t goodpractice for the real world; the full approach just isn’t theusual way of doin’ business. Vectors to final […]