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 flying an ILS who intercept the glideslope outside the Final Approach Fix (FAF) must still comply with stepdown fix altitude restrictions, as the glideslope does not always guarantee compliance.
Cold weather does not worsen the ILS glideslope/stepdown issue; however, it causes altimeters to read higher than true altitude, which can lead to dangerously low actual altitudes and necessitate cold-weather corrections for some approaches.

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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.