The new approach briefing

The crew briefing is so important to safety that major training organizations recommend single pilots perform the briefing steps and, maybe, even announce the information out loud to themselves to reinforce the essential steps.

Many years ago, Jeppesen codified and trademarked the “briefing strip” that appears near the top of its approach charts. The strip lists the critical components of the approach procedure in the order that you typically accomplish each step. It’s a useful way to present information, but now that nearly all of us fly with GPS-based flight management systems (FMS) I think the emphasis of the briefing can use an update. We need to understand and brief what the FMS will do as much as what we pilots will do.

The first two elements of the traditional briefing are to identify the type of approach and frequency of the ground-based navaid used and confirm the final approach course. This is where FMS/GPS has created the most significant differences.

Perhaps the biggest change brought on by FMS/GPS is in the variety of approaches we can now fly. Yes, good old “green needles” ILS is still there, but we get to the green needle in a different way. And the title “RNAV” is insufficient to describe the variety of approaches we routinely fly that are not reliant on a ground-based navaid.

Information that defines an approach procedure is now packaged in the database of the FMS. We no longer tune a localizer frequency and set an inbound course. We don’t need to look for crossing radials or DME values to established fixes in the procedure. All that information pops up when we load the procedure in the FMS. And even when we fly the “raw data” ILS on final, the other steps in the procedure—and crucially the guidance for missed approach—are established by the FMS using GPS or its other variety of sensors.

So, it’s now pointless to brief frequencies or courses to be set. It’s all done for us in the single step of selecting the approach procedure. Some of you are screaming that the FMS could be wrong, and you should double check a LOC frequency against and course against the chart. Knock yourself out if you like, but the charts are drawn from the same database the FMS uses. If there is an error in one, it will be repeated in the other.

Now the important information to brief is not the frequency and course, but the exact type of approach so we know what to expect from the FMS. For example, we’re cleared for an RNAV approach, but what kind is it? If it’s an LPV (localizer precision with vertical guidance) the approach will mimic an ILS in every way, especially the angular deviation indications that cone in just as a traditional ILS does.

There are also RNAV approaches that provide linear guidance all the way to the missed approach point. The approach may have vertical guidance that is part of the approach or advisory only. And some avionics suites can behave differently depending on the approach selected. For example, in the airplane I fly if you engage approach mode on the autopilot while flying an ILS before the localizer needle is moving toward center the autopilot turns directly to the final approach fix instead of continuing to the LOC centerline. An inefficient way to design a system, but you need to know and brief.

It’s also important to brief how you “load” an approach as either going to an initial fix or vectors to final. In most FMS, when you select vectors to final the system loads and displays the fixes on the final course, but not necessarily the potentially large number of initial fixes that can be part of the full procedure.

What can happen—and does for us regularly—is the controllers have you on a vector and then say, “go direct to X.” Where the heck is that? It’s not on the list of fixes the FMS called up to fly vectors for the approach. Oh, it’s an initial fix that’s part of the full procedure so we have to go back to the FMS and reselect the full procedure, then go to the fix. That’s a possibility to discuss when briefing and loading the procedure.

When expecting to fly a full approach, be sure to brief what will happen at a fix and select the one you really want to fly. Many full RNAV procedures will have a fix listed twice. At one instance of the fix the system will direct some sort of course reversal, and at the other sequence to the next fix. If you’re not anticipating a course reversal, it’s an unwelcome surprise to see the FMS guide you into a hold or procedure turn you were not expecting.

It’s still important to brief the final approach fix minimum crossing altitude and, of course, the decision altitude (DA) or minimum descent altitude (MDA). Key altitudes such as at the final approach fix and initial fix crossings will appear beside the name of the fix on nearly all FMS systems so you don’t need to look around for that information. The DA or MDA is still not always easy to find without looking at the approach chart. The reason is that several variables can determine that altitude.

MDA is, however, potentially quite variable, and the brief needs to be specific based on availability of altimeter setting and whether a circle to land is necessary. In the days before FMS, the MDA could vary if you couldn’t establish a fix based on radar, or maybe a cross radial, or DME, but the FMS locates all fixes in the procedure so that limitation is gone.

Finally, there is the possibility of a missed approach. All FMS load the missed procedure as part of the approach. The key item to brief here is really the altitude to climb to, and exactly how to initiate the miss.

Most FMS and integrated flight control systems respond automatically to the press of the “Takeoff/Go-around” button on the throttle. The guidance transitions to the missed approach procedure and the autopilot transitions to the necessary modes to fly the procedure and issue commands on the flight director.

But some navigation systems are not integrated into the flight control system, and it may be necessary to enter a command on the FMS to initiate the miss, and to select the proper guidance command modes. And you will in virtually all systems want to brief and set in the alerter the missed approach altitude.

Bottom line: A complete approach briefing with our comprehensive avionics systems is to describe and understand what the system will do and be sure we have entered the procedure we really expect to fly. The FMS and flight control systems most of us fly really don’t need help from us to provide complete and accurate guidance. But we can unintentionally screw things up and confuse ourselves if we don’t fully know and describe what the system will do.

Garmin’s fantastic Autoland system already certified in several airplanes can do it all, including selecting the procedure, flying it, and landing the airplane so there is no question what avionics can ultimately do. But there are many ways we can misunderstand the intent of the system and that’s what the complete and modern crew briefing can prevent.

J. Mac McClellan is a corporate pilot with more than 12,000 hours, and a retired aviation magazine editor living in Grand Haven, Michigan.