Wind on the ILS

Youre descending on the glideslope for the ILS 29 with a 25-knot tailwind. Winds at the surface are eight knots from the southwest. Quick: What two corrective actions will you need to make over the next three minutes? With enough experience youll get it right, but ask yourself: Is this brand of analysis second nature to you? Sure, you can just follow the needles and correct, but thats accepting being behind the curve rather than mastering it. An understanding of the variables affecting an approach path give you the capacity for proactive, rather than reactive, piloting.

Editorial Staff

Thursday, March 26, 2015 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Embrace proactive, anticipatory piloting by understanding approach variables like wind shifts and changing groundspeed, rather than merely reacting to instrument deflections.
Master lateral guidance by continuously monitoring and adjusting a "reference heading" to compensate for wind, recognizing that localizer sensitivity varies with distance and runway length.
Master vertical guidance by understanding how groundspeed dictates the required descent rate and maintaining a "reference pitch" through small, incremental adjustments.
Effective approaches rely on continuous monitoring of track and groundspeed to make small, measured adjustments to both reference heading and pitch, keeping navigation needles centered.

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You’re descending on the glideslope for the ILS 29 with a 25-knot tailwind. Winds at the surface are eight knots from the southwest. Quick: What two corrective actions will you need to make over the next three minutes?

With enough experience you’ll get it right, but ask yourself: Is this brand of analysis second nature to you? Sure, you can just follow the needles and correct, but that’s accepting being behind the curve rather than mastering it. An understanding of the variables affecting an approach path give you the capacity for proactive, rather than reactive, piloting.