ILS Nuances Redux

Many of you have written to express confusion and disbelief about my ILS Nuances article in November. A couple of you even caught an important mistake I made. First, thanks to all of you for your notes. Now, let me recap a few things to hopefully help you (and me) better understand.

Frank Bowlin

Sunday, December 17, 2017 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Pilots must actively comply with stepdown fix altitude restrictions when intercepting an ILS glideslope outside the Final Approach Fix (FAF), as relying solely on the glideslope does not guarantee clearance, despite often appearing to do so.
Cold weather does not exacerbate the ILS glideslope/stepdown fix problem but causes altimeters to read higher than true altitude, potentially leading to unsafe actual altitudes, which is why some approaches require cold-weather adjustments.

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Many of you have written to express confusion and disbelief about my “ILS Nuances” article in November. A couple of you even caught an important mistake I made. First, thanks to all of you for your notes. Now, let me recap a few things to hopefully help you (and me) better understand.

The Premise

The bottom line from that article that has caused so much discussion is that if you’re flying an ILS and intercept the glideslope outside the FAF, you could be busting some of the stepdown fix altitude restrictions.