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 can only hold one approach at a time, but pilots can efficiently load subsequent approaches (at the same or different airports) by using the "PROC" page while on a missed approach segment, then flying "Direct To" the new approach's Initial Approach Fix (IAF) when cleared.
To re-fly the same approach, simply select "Direct To" its IAF again while on the missed approach of the previous attempt.
Differentiate between "Load" and "Load and Activate" functions: "Load" appends an approach's waypoints to the flight plan, while "Load and Activate" makes it immediately active. For better planning and execution, it's generally recommended to "Load" an expected approach and then use "Direct To" an appropriate fix when cleared, rather than "Load and Activate" prematurely.

See a mistake? Contact us.

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.