Near-Miss Understandings

Monday, April 20, 2020 at 01:40 PM ET

Verified

“Join the final approach course inbound” means you fly the course inbound and maintain your assigned altitude … not suddenly make a 180 degree into the face of the guy following you.

Key Takeaways:

Pilot misinterpretation of ATC phraseology, like "join the final approach course inbound" or "I'll call your procedure turn," frequently leads to dangerous assumptions and loss of separation.
Pilots must strictly adhere to assigned altitudes; "cleared approach" only permits descent to *appropriate* altitudes as depicted on the approach chart, respecting all intermediate restrictions.
Instructions such as maintaining maximum forward speed do not negate the requirement to fly the full lateral guidance of an approach, including all intermediate fixes.
The overarching safety lesson is for pilots to always request clarification from ATC if any instruction is unclear, rather than making assumptions, as mandated by 14 CFR Section 91.123.

See a mistake? Contact us.

Sequences don’t come much easier. A VFR Mooney and a VFR Cherokee both requested a practice RNAV approach. They were the same distance from the same initial approach fix (IAF), and the Mooney was 50 knots faster than the Cherokee.

I gave the Mooney direct to the IAF. The slower Cherokee got a few vectors to fall in trail, then also got direct to the IAF. With all the sequences I build every day as a controller, this was a no-brainer. Fast guy in front. Slower guy in the back.