More than a static map

But the plan view can be more than a static drawing. When you review a plate or coach an IFR student through setting up for an approach, think of the plan view as both a noun and as a verb. It can help you plan your approach and map details from the chart to your avionics.

Consider the ILS or LOC RWY 20 approach at Bremerton National Airport (PWT), about 20 nautical miles west of Seattle. It’s a typical ILS. The plan view shows high terrain just northwest of the runway, the names of the fixes that define the segments of the approach, and the final approach course, 197 degrees.

The top-down perspective also depicts radials from the Seattle (SEA) and Olympia (OLM) navaids that help you maintain situational awareness—if you use that information to plan how you’ll map the localizer and VOR frequencies to your number 1 and 2 nav radios and set the bearing pointers or conventional course deviation indicators linked to those sources. Even if your panel includes a GPS, those radials help you confirm your position relative to WUMOX, where you’ll intercept the glideslope; and, if you fly the missed approach, join the OLM 346-degree radial inbound to CARRO, which anchors the hold. The plan view is also key to anticipating which leg or waypoint you’ll activate to ensure that the GPS sequences correctly.

PWT is a nontowered airport, so you also need to plan the best arrangement of frequencies in your number 1 and 2 communications radios for efficient switching from approach control to the CTAF and then back to ATC to cancel IFR on the ground in the surface-based Class E airspace if the weather is less than basic VFR.

Here’s how I help IFR pilots use the plan view for this approach. During preflight planning, think about where you’ll navigate with the CDI set to GPS (magenta) and when you should switch to and confirm “green needles” to track the localizer. At PWT, I tune the localizer, 111.1 MHz, in nav 1 active, with the OLM VOR, 113.4, in standby. If I fly the published miss, that arrangement makes it easy to switch from the localizer (no longer needed on the initial heading leg) to monitor and join the OLM 346-degree radial inbound, even if I’ve activated the miss in the GPS. In nav 2, I set 116.8 in active to confirm approaching and crossing the SEA 282-degree radial at WUMOX and later to help identify CARRO. I have OLM standing by in nav 2 as additional backup. I’ll talk to Seattle Approach on 120.1 set in com 1 active, with the CTAF, 123.05, ready to flip-flop when ATC switches me to the advisory frequency. In com 2 active, I check the AWOS on 121.2, with 127.1, the frequency to cancel IFR on the ground, in standby.

For more practice, map details from the plan view for the ILS or LOC Runway 13R at Hillsboro, Oregon (HIO) near Portland, to your panel.

Adopting this technique isn’t a leap. We already interact with animated charts on EFBs. Your airplane symbol crawls over the map, which also displays a track vector, airspace alerts, and potential traffic conflicts. Today, GPS navigators and PFDs tap databases to set the localizer frequency and slew the course needle when you load an ILS approach. It’s not a stretch to imagine a new “avionics setup menu” powered by AI that suggests the optimum arrangement for a procedure. But until that future arrives, during preflight planning use your innate human ability to recognize patterns and anticipate actions that will help you efficiently solve the puzzle of the plan view later when you’re in the air. FT

Bruce Williams is a CFI. Find him at youtube.com/@BruceAirFlying and bruceair.wordpress.com