PPINE -- A pilot's journal: How to brief an instrument approach

Wow, I'm behind in posting. Too much flying lately. I'll cheat a bit and post something I've written for my instrument students on briefing instrument approaches. It's a distillation from several different sources, including my own experience.

Amazingly, approaches seem to go better when they've been briefed ahead of time. Not always, but most of the time.

The goal of a good approach briefing is to lay out a plan of action for conducting an instrument approach. Saying the briefing out loud, even if you're flying alone, helps strengthen your understanding of what you'll be doing on the approach.

When flying with an instructor, a verbal briefing eliminates some of the “I wonder what he's going to do next” factor (which, admittedly, we love) and gives the instructor a chance to prompt for any items you may have overlooked. In other words, we know what you're doing but not what you're thinking and the thinking is really the most important -- and difficult -- part of instrument flying.

The briefing can be fairly detailed (down to the actual mechanics of flying the airplane, setting the OBS, tuning the radios, etc...) or more generalized (i.e, the “big picture” with the details of OBS settings, radios, etc... assumed.)

At the very least, a good approach briefing should include the following:

The destination airport
The type and name of the approach being flown
The transition onto the approach (vectors or via an IAF or transition)
The inbound course
Approach communication and navigation frequencies
Target airspeeds
Flap settings
Step down fixes, procedure turns, etc...
Final approach fix
Missed approach fix
Decision altitude or MDA
Missed approach procedure.

It's fine to check the approach plate several times after the briefing and you should always review the final fixes, altitudes and missed approach procedure prior to reaching the final approach fix.

From the final approach fix inbound, your only task should be to fly that segment.

In other words, don't wait until you cross the FAF to discover there is a step-down fix or to start looking up your MDA while trying to complete the pre-landing checklist. (Having flown many an approach while committing that exact sin I can tell you from experience it's not fun. Having had a student stop flying the approach and start asking questions about the fourth step of a missed approach procedure 700 feet off the ground while flying an ILS to near-minimums in actual conditions I can tell you is downright terrifying.)

An example approach briefing for the ILS 27 into Anoka

"We're going to the Anoka County Airport and this will be an ILS to runway 27 via radar vectors.

Our inbound course is 269 degrees and once we're established on the localizer and cleared for the approach we can descend to 2,600 until glideslope intercept. Runway 27 is 5,000 feet long and the airport elevation is 912 feet. Decision Altitude is 1,110 feet and we need ½ mile visibility.

The altimeter is 29.97 and confirmed set.

The localizer is 111.15, Anoka Tower is 126.05 and ground is on 121.85. I'll set the localizer in my number one and number two nav radios and tower is already in my standby on number one comm. Ground is the active on number two and the approach is loaded and activated in the GPS.

Two miles from BOKYA I'll set the power to 2,100 RPM for a target approach speed of 90 knots and drop 10 degrees of flaps then complete the pre-landing checklist. At glideslope intercept I'll set 1,900 RPM then adjust as needed to maintain the glideslope and 90 knots.

Our decision altitude is 1,110 barometric and the wind is out of the northwest so we'll have a slight right crosswind and the runway should be slightly to the left of the nose. There is a PAPI on the left side and a medium intensity approach light system with a rabbit.

If we have the runway at or before minimums we'll land and plan to turn left after we've crossed 18 then contact ground to taxi to the FBO.

If we don't have the runway or get more than a half-scale deflection on the localizer or more than a dot low on the glideslope we'll go missed. The missed approach is a straight climb to 2,700 then hold at Gopher. On the missed I'll go full power, pitch for 80 knots, positive rate then flaps up. Once we're established in the climb and navigating toward Gopher we'll report our missed to Anoka tower."

An example approach briefing for the VOR-A into Crystal

We're going to the Crystal airport and this will be the VOR-A approach via Gopher.

Our inbound course is 166 degrees and we can descend to 2,500 once we're established inbound and within 10 miles of the VOR. Our MDA is 1,360, I'll use 1,900, we need one-mile visibility and we'll circle to land on 32R.

The altimeter is 29.94 and is properly set.

Gopher is 117.3, Crystal tower is 120.7 and ground is 121.6.

We'll proceed to Gopher using the number two then fly outbound on the 346 radial, which I'll set in number one. We're approaching Gopher from the west so it'll be about a 110 degree turn outbound so we'll lead it by one mile.

Once we're established outbound and cleared for the approach we'll maintain 3,000 and I'll do a procedure turn to the left four miles from the VOR. I'll set the inbound course of 166 once we begin the turn and once we intercept we'll descend to 2,500.

Two miles from Gopher I'll set 2,100 RPM and flaps 10 for an approach speed of 90 knots then complete the pre-landing checklist. At Gopher I'll set 1,700 RPM for a target descent rate of 600 feet per minute at 90 knots and start timing. The missed approach point is at three minutes, sixteen seconds.

The approach brings us in at an angle, so the runway will be lined up slightly to the left of the nose and we'll plan to cross over the airport to put the runway off the left side of the airplane where I can see it better.

We'll stay at 1,900 on downwind then fly a normal VFR traffic pattern. There's a VASI on the left side of 32 right.

We'll plan to land and roll to the end, turn right and contact ground to taxi to Wiley North.

If we don't have the airport at 1,900 feet and three minutes we'll go missed, which is a climbing left turn to 2,500, direct Gopher and hold on the inbound course with left turns. On the miss I'll go full power, pitch for 80 knots, positive rate then retract the flaps. Once we're established in the climb and navigating toward Gopher we'll report our missed to Crystal Tower. I'll leave the number one nav set to the inbound course and go direct to Gopher using the number two."

So there you have it. It looks like a lot, but it only takes a couple of minutes.

I've also added the checklist I use for flying instrument approaches. A good time to start the checklist is before beginning your descent and it's helpful to finish the approach briefing before beginning your descent as well.

Usually, ATC will tell you what approach to expect before you begin your final descent, so it's a good idea to study the approach plate enroute, study it again when you've been told by ATC which approach to expect then brief the approach.

When in training, we know the approach we're going to fly next, or request from ATC, so as soon as that decision is made it's a good time to conduct the approach briefing.

There's a lot going on in the final 15 minutes of an IFR flight so getting the approach briefing done while there's still a period of relatively low workload can help smooth things out, leaving you with the ability to concentrate fully on just flying the approach.

Approach checklist and briefing