When Rabbit Wont Run

The inoperative table doesn’t cover every possible system failure. Plus, you also need to consider facility outages and equipment failures at your alternate.

stevel

Friday, October 19, 2012 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Instrument flight fundamentally relies on trust in equipment and ATC, but aviation procedures inherently account for potential failures of both airborne and ground-based navigation and lighting systems.
Failures of critical infrastructure (e.g., ILS components, runway lighting, VORs, accurate weather data) often lead to increased minimums or render approaches unusable, necessitating careful contingency planning.
Pilots must proactively plan for equipment outages by thoroughly reviewing approach plates for alternate minimums and inoperative component effects, and practicing degraded approach scenarios to ensure readiness.

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Trust is an intrinsic part of instrument flight. We trust ATC to keep other aircraft from running into us, we trust other pilots to know what they’re doing and we trust the instruments themselves. In the bargain, we also expect our onboard equipment—trust is too strong a word—to work and have a similar, positive outlook on electronic navigation resources: GPS, ILS, VOR, etc. But these systems, whether air- or ground-borne, can and do fail. In fact, expecting failure of various components comprising the aviation infrastructure is baked into many of its procedures.