Flying Visual Approaches? Synthetic Vision Pathways Can Help

Try this Garmin feature and see if it doesn’t bring you out exactly on the visual glidepath to the airport.

Max Trescott

Tuesday, June 03, 2025 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

While working with new Vision Jet pilots, the author found that they typically struggle in two areas. One is flying arrivals, and the other is flying visual approaches. [Courtesy: Max Trescott]

Key Takeaways:

Garmin's "Pathways" feature, a series of moving rectangles on the PFD, is often perceived by pilots as distracting and can increase workload.
Pilots, especially those transitioning to jets, frequently struggle with accurately judging altitude and maintaining a correct glidepath during visual approaches.
A practical use for Pathways is discovered for visual approaches: load any approach with vertical guidance and activate "vectors to final," which will display Pathways boxes along the glideslope.
To maintain a precise visual glidepath without calculations, simply aim the Flight Path Marker (FPM) at these moving Pathways boxes, regardless of approach angle or runway length.

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If you’ve flown in a Garmin glass cockpit with synthetic vision, then you may have seen the “Pathways” feature, a series of constantly moving rectangles on the primary flight display (PFD). Candidly, I’ve never liked Pathways, so I was delighted to recently find a good use for them. Best of all, this tip works in any Garmin glass cockpit with Synthetic Vision Pathways technology, so you can use it in anything from a G1000-equipped Cessna 172, up through Cessna business jets with the G3000 and G5000.

The following comes from my Max Trescott’s G1000 and Perspective Glass Cockpit Handbook: