I am a very low hours pilot and mostly fly in and out of an airport in a C172 that has an 8,500 x 150 runway with PAPI at one end and VASI at the other end.
The approach that "feels" best to me at the PAPI end after chopping power and taking the first chunk of flaps abeam the threshold on the downwind leg is 4 whites at the end of the base to final turn with the second notch of flaps taken on base, 2 whites and 2 reds at about 500ft AGL when I am stabilised on final and one "pink" and three reds when I cross the threshold at the end on the PAPI runway with full flaps or only two notches depending on winds.
The PAPI indications are incidental to how I see the runway from midfield on the downwind leg onwards and I really only use them to confirm that my sight picture makes sense and is somewhat consistent.
The other end has a VASI which I struggle to see and use. This doesn't really matter as I rely on the sight picture that I have developed on the reciprocal runway.
Like many others, I struggle when I go to less familiar fields and am asked to join on base rather than on the 45 downwind or overhead joining downwind which gives me more time to set myself up.
I do think that developing a sight picture (and knowing the intuitive adjustments to make for short versus long, wide versus narrow and uphill versus downhill runways) is more important than following VASI / PAPI glidescopes.
I am early in the process of getting my FAA IR. I know that I have to follow precision and non-precision approach procedures when available (ignoring WAAS which seems to be uniquely North American luxury).
I don't yet know enough to understand when I should follow the PAPI / VASI after breaking out below the clouds and when I should use my VMC procedures. If the ceiling is 201 ft, the answer is pretty obvious. If the ceiling is 3,000 ft, the answer is also pretty obvious.
I don't have enough skill or experience to know where the dividing line is between 201 and 3,000 ft. For more skilled pilots, I know that the dividing line will be much tighter.
Last edited by Aphrican; 1st May 2013 at 21:09.