Even after flying for the past thirteen years, I still get a kick out of manually steering the airplane around. But I’ve also come to understand that autopilots can be a life-saver. If you’re like me, you probably hate to relinquish the controls to a machine but there are times when you ought to take full advantage of an autopilot.

Hands-on flying is a necessary skill, and is certainly a lot of fun but it takes a good portion of brain-space away from the important task of decision making. There is only so much that the human mind can effectively process before becoming “task-saturated.” This is the point at which performance suffers because your brain can’t keep up! To stave off task saturation pilots should maximize the use of automation is high-workload environments.

Diamond with a G1000

Consider engaging the autopilot in areas of inclement weather. Sometimes the decision making process is clean cut: nasty clouds to the left, maybe we’ll go right. Other days, the choice is not so clear. By letting the autopilot fly the airplane, you can focus a little more closely on the weather and make more effective decisions en route.

Going into a busy airport? Turn that autopilot on and focus on those radio calls and keep your eyes open for traffic. A lot of airplanes are even approved for “coupled approaches” where the airplane will actually intercept a localizer and fly an instrument approach. This frees the pilot to shift to a “big-picture” focus and stay ahead of the airplane. Just a word of warning: be ready to manually intercept the final approach course. Most of the airplanes I’ve flown do a fine job of blowing through the localizer on a coupled approach.

Long cross-country flights are the perfect time to make use of the autopilot. Why fatigue yourself by wiggling the controls to keep the wings level for several hours? Turn on the autopilot and relax. You’ll be that much more alert when it comes time to land.

Anytime you feel task-saturated, consider raising the level of automation to help you catch up and stay ahead of the game. Remember, physically maneuvering the airplane is only one part of flying. Good pilots are also good decision makers, so take advantage of any tools at your disposal to increase your situational awareness and aeronautical decision making skills.

When operating into controlled airports, tower will occasionally ask you to maintain “best forward airpseed” with your landing clearance. This is especially common for pilots of slower piston-engine airplanes. As common as this request is, it is not required (and rarely covered) by the flight training curriculum.

ATC will ask for best speed on final in an attempt to expedite arrivals and maintain spacing. As a pilot, this means that there is something coming in behind you. Quickly. These fast-movers tend to come in two varieties: turboprops have a final approach speed between 100 to 120 knots, and jets, with an approach speed of 130 to 160 knots.

Keep in mind that “best forward airspeed” is not a mandate, but a request. If in the judgement of the PIC, a faster than normal approach will compromise safety, it is the pilot’s responsibility to notify ATC that he/she is unable to comply. Bear in mind that you may be vectored and resequenced behind the faster aircraft. At no time should a pilot feel obligated to compromise safety in order to “help out” air traffic controllers. It’s your butt on the line! That being said, maintaining best forward airspeed on final is a perfectly safe maneuver provided the pilot plans accordingly.

My Best Forward Airspeed Approach Technique:

1. Delay the use of flaps / gear
2. Maintain a high power setting
3. One mile final:
   1. Gear: Down (if applicable)
   2. Slow to maximum flap extension speed (top of the white arc)
4. Crossing the airport boundary:
   1. Throttle: Idle
   2. Flaps: Full

Due to excess airspeed, the airplane will have a tendency to float. Level off above the runway and fly the airplane until it is ready to land. Know that the approach and landing technique will vary from airplane to airplane. Consult an instructor for specific information regarding your airplane.

After landing, quickly clear the active runway by turning off at the next available taxiway. If there is some distance to be covered, it may be prudent to delay braking until just prior to reaching a runway turnoff. See my article on planning your after-landing taxi route.

A Word On Safety

Best forward airspeed on final approach is a bit of a contradiction. The pilot is being asked to speed up at the one time when it is critical to slow down. This is perfectly safe, so long as you always respect your personal minimums and aircraft limitations.

I strongly suggest that you practice a few best forward airspeed approaches at your local airport to elevate your comfort level with a faster than normal approach. This is also helpful in understanding the drag charactersitics of your airplane. It may be prudent to take a CFI along to learn any airplane-specific tricks.

Related Links

Forum discussion on best forward speed.
Blog entry about planning your after-landing taxi route.

How often do you shoot an instrument approach? Chances are that it is not very often. Most of us have the good sense to stay out of the weather when conditions are marginal. Furthermore, in most parts of the world, the weather is usually conducive to a visual approach. This is good news for VFR pilots, but it can make the instrument rated aviator more than a bit rusty.

Airline pilots do this sort of thing on nearly every flight. When the ATIS indicates a visual approach is in use, flight crews typically brief that “this will be a visual, backed up by the ILS.” This means that we will plan on making a visual approach, while preparing for the instrument approach. This dual visual/instrument approach has several advantages.

First, the pilot’s situational awareness is boosted by the use of radio aids. We’ve all lost sight of the runway at some time or another, but a quick check of the localizer needle can provide an at-a-glance reassurance that you haven’t blown through the final approach course! Furthermore, GPS systems can be configured to display instrument approaches (and even visual approaches in some cases) as an extended centerline miles away from the runway. So long as you can fly the airplane to that line and make the turn, you ought to find the runway right in front of the nose.

Another advantage of backing up the visual with an instrument approach is that it simultaneously sharpens both visual and instrument skills. By monitoring the CDI and glideslope indicator, the pilot is more likely to maintain the perfect site-picture for a stellar landing (so long as speed control is right on!). Furthermore, the pilot’s mind will be forced to interpret and understand localizer and/or glideslope indications, leading to greater skill and confidence when landing in actual instrument conditions.

For IFR traffic operating into busy towered airports, it is strongly recommended that pilots be prepared for the most likely instrument approach as controllers may issue clearances and speed restrictions to specific approach fixes. For example, a pilot may be “cleared for the visual 18L, maintain 140 knots to RONEE, contact tower 119.7 at RONEE.” The prepared pilot will already have configured for the ILS and is already in a position to identify RONEE without scrambling for charts in a high-workload environment.

It is important to note that backing up a visual approach with an instrument approach is not the same thing as flying an actual instrument approach. These approaches cannot be logged as instrument approaches for the sake of maintaining currency unless it is done under a training hood with a qualified safety pilot.

At all times, the pilot should keep in mind that he is flying a visual approach, which does not have a published missed approach procedure. In the event of a go-around, entering the traffic pattern would be the appropriate maneuver unless otherwise directed by air traffic control.

As pilots, we all strive for that perfect landing. Sometimes we grease it, sometimes we don’t. Even after thirteen years of landing these airplanes, I still embarrass myself with the occasional sloppy approach or disgraceful landing. I think a lot of the reason we fail to make a clean landing is because we tend to forget the basics. Keep these six tips in mind next time you turn base to final.

1. Don’t stop flying the airplane. Just because the mains are on the ground does not relieve you from flying the airplane. Gently lower the nose and gradually increase your crosswind correction to full aileron into the wind during rollout.
2. Maintain the centerline. Discipline yourself to remain on the centerline throughout final approach. Do this by looking down the runway and maneuvering your airplane to make the centerline appear to stand vertically.
3. A good approach makes for a good landing. By squaring off your pattern, hitting your target airspeeds, and staying on altitude throughout the approach, you are setting yourself up for a spectacular landing.
4. Configure early. Don’t fall into the habit of keepin the gear and flaps up until short final. This tends to destabilize your approach as the aircraft dramatically changes its speed and pitch through rapid deployment of gear and flaps. Instead, configure incrementally and early. This will allow you to focus completely on the task of landing the aircraft throughout final approach.
5. Trim the airplane. A properly trimmed airplane will land itself on a calm day. Trim your airplane and cut down on pilot workload by making small corrections to guide your bird down.
6. Aim for the numbers. Keep the numbers in the middle of the windshield. If they move up, you are getting to low: add power. If they move down, you are getting too high: reduce power.

Sometimes it pays to pull the power back and take your time. In fact, sometimes it can save an awful lot of time.

I was operating a flight from Chattanooga to Memphis on a foggy winter day. I had been flying this trip all month, and the flight had become quite routine. Today, the weather put a slight kink in our plans. The latest forecast read as follows:

TAF KMEM 300530Z 3006/3106 29005KT 2SM BR SCT001
      TEMPO 3006/3010 1/4SM FZFG VV001
     FM301000 29005KT 1SM BR SCT001
      TEMPO 3010/3013 1/4SM FZFG VV001
     FM301500 27010KT P6SM BKN100
     FM302000 25010KT P6SM SCT050 BKN100
     FM310000 30005KT P6SM BKN050

We were scheduled to arrive in Memphis at 13:30 Zulu time. Our minimums for shooting a Category 2 ILS approach required a runway visual range (RVR) of 1,600 feet, or about 1/4 statute miles visibility. The latest METAR from Memphis revealed an RVR of 1,200 feet, well below our minimums. Although the weather was forecast to improve, we had reason to suspect the timeliness of that improvement. There was still a good chance that we would wind up at one of our alternates. Not cool.

It was my leg to fly and my captain made the insightful suggestion to fly slowly. Although we were in a hurry to get back, I agreed that this was the best course of action and kept the speed down, and that made all the difference.

By maintaining a lower cruise speed, we improved the safety of flight and shaved hours off the trip. How is this possible you ask? Read on.

For starters, a lower cruise speed resulted in a much more efficient fuel burn, allowing us to arrive with a few hundred pounds of extra fuel. Had the weather not been conducive to an approach, the extra fuel could have bought us a little more time to wait and see if the visibility would cooperate before diverting to an alternate.

We also reasoned that the slower cruising speed would also allow us to arrive a few minutes later, well into the time period in which the visibility was forecast to improve. En route, Memphis’ ATIS revealed an RVR of 1,200 feet, which gradually improved to 1,800 feet just prior to our approach. We were legal to land.

At no point did we have to enter a holding pattern, and we landed uneventfully on 36-Left after a textbook approach right down to minimums.

If we had made a speedy dash to Memphis, we might not have been legal to shoot the approach, and our passengers would have experienced an unpleasant delay in Huntsville complete with missed connections and frayed nerves. Instead, we took our time and completed the flight just a few minutes late, as opposed to a few hours for the would-be diversion.

Don’t let get-there-itis trick you into rushing towards the sky. If the weather at your destination is uncooperative, but scheduled to improve, it may be prudent slow down. In some cases, it might even be wise to delay your departure until the weather begins to clear. With a little patience, you can beat the weather and find your runway well above minimums.