The glideslope pegged. Or failed. Or the winds now favor circling. No, you don’t have to go missed. You just have to move the aircraft back into the safe zone.
Switch-Hitting On the EILS
Pull out your average approach plate for your favorite ILS. What youre looking at is really two approaches that share a piece of paper: the ILS and the localizer-only. Its even stated this way in TERPs: two separate approaches.
Key Takeaways:
- ILS approach plates depict two distinct procedures: a precision ILS (with glideslope) and a non-precision localizer-only approach (azimuth guidance only).
- If the glideslope fails during an ILS approach, pilots can transition to the localizer-only procedure, provided they remain above its Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA) and within the protected airspace.
- While technically permissible, some pilots advocate for immediately executing a missed approach upon glideslope failure due to potential uncertainty regarding the cause of the malfunction.
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