Multiple Approaches

Even after a couple hundred hours behind my Garmin GTN 650, there are still things I struggle to do properly. Chief among those is flying multiple approaches. Sure, we mostly have to do that in practice, but if you miss at a busy airport or the winds change after youve set up, you might find yourself needing to plug in that second approach, or third. If you were like me, youd get things hopelessly bollixed up before you just cleared the flight plan and started over.

Frank Bowlin

Friday, September 08, 2017 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The Garmin GTN 650 handles only one active approach at a time; to fly sequential approaches (at the same or different airports), load the next approach from the "PROC" page while on the missed approach segment of the previous one, then activate it by selecting "Direct to" its Initial Approach Fix (IAF).
For optimal control, avoid explicitly using "Load and Activate" for an approach; instead, simply "Load" the approach, and when cleared, go "Direct to" the appropriate IAF or activate a specific leg within the approach.
This method provides a more efficient and confident way to manage multiple approaches, preventing flight plan errors and eliminating the need to clear and restart the entire flight plan.

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Even after a couple hundred hours behind my Garmin GTN 650, there are still things I struggle to do properly. Chief among those is flying multiple approaches. Sure, we mostly have to do that in practice, but if you miss at a busy airport or the winds change after you’ve set up, you might find yourself needing to plug in that second approach, or third. If you were like me, you’d get things hopelessly bollixed up before you just cleared the flight plan and started over.

While this brute-force approach does work, it’s not very efficient, and it certainly isn’t confidence inspiring. So, with some help from my friends at Garmin, I figured it out. Here’s the quick course in flying approach after approach.