Practising Instrument Approaches
 

I have an interesting question which no one I've talked to has been able to answer yet!
As part of my IMC I have been doing instrument approaches with an instructor. This can end up costing quite a lot (instructor + plane + approach fees) and a lot of the airports I fly to when hour building have published approach procedures (Cambridge, Humberside, Cranfield etc.). I was wondering whether it would be legal for my to fly and instrument approach, in entirely visual conditions (ie. clear of cloud in sign of the ground) without foggles or anything and with a safety pilot? Now, Because I'm flying in VMC you could argue it is fine but does the fact that I would be flying an instrument approach (an IMC privilege) mean that it would be illegal?

After all, instrument approaches are just a complex VOR/NDB tracking exercise.

Thanks for any help,

I assume you mean our lovely UK-IMC/IR(R) rating. You want to stay proficient for procedures? Just do so.

When you are VMC and approach an airport with published approaches, just turn the radio on and ask whether it is ok to do so. If it is not a major airport with general restrictions, there is nothing special in AIP or NOTAM and traffic situation allows, I estimate the odds to be 90+% you get the permit from the tower. You can also save some money to ask for low approach instead of landing or T/G.

And no, it is not illegal to fly an instrument approach VFR. In contrast, most controller welcome this as part of flight safety. I quite often ask to use the approach procedure for VFR landing instead of traffic pattern and most of the times I get permission to do so.

Exactly correct!

That's good to hear as I was a bit worried about how I was going to afford to keep proficiency! Obviously I wouldn't be able to log (simulated) instrument time but it's still good to keep the hand in!

Thanks :cool:

I practise ILS approaches into a local military base located on the coast, I don't have the published plate, but just go out over the North Sea about 15 miles on a day where the tops are about 5k and the basis 1k (as reported at a local field) pick up a basic service from the LARS for the MATZ I'm doing the approach into and jump on the ILS and ride it down to visual at about 1000 staying just outside the Zone, break off, hang a 180 climbing back up on top on the "downwind" and repeat that a few times. It's good practice and gives a good 8 or 9 minutes in actual while trying to stay on the crosshairs. Doesn't cost anything and for the most part not getting in anybody's way. I suppose you'd have to wait until you get your instrument ticket before you tried that but it's good for keeping your skills fresh post check ride.

The only trouble here is that you arenot practicing the bit that matters at the end when the needles get more sensitive and you transit from IMC to visual at low level

Yes, agreed, but going lower would involve getting into the zone and I don't think they'd go for that. Its the closest place to my home field that I can do this without having to talk to a tower, plus as a instrument novice 1000 feet gives a comfortable margin on the bottom for practicing cloud breaks.

Try asking - if they are not busy and you are not landing they may well say yes.

Depending on jet traffic,Farnborough will give you practice ILS and SRA approaches at no cost.

I fly from a controlled airfield with several approaches available (ILS and VOR/DME each end). When arriving home from a convenient direction vs. runway in use (so a practice IFR approach would not add significant flying time) I tend to contact either TWR or APP early and kindly request a practice IFR approach. Given enough heads-up time they are typically able to work me in four out of five cases. The backup plan is the regular VFR approach, obviously.

I've even been able to get a practice IFR approach towards the wrong end, with a circle-to-land at the end. But that screws up the regular IFR departures and approaches, and barges straight through the visual circuit. So that's only possible when it's really, really quiet.

You've now let everybody know something that's been successfully kept schtum for about 40 years.
But don't just call up expecting an iap, you MUST phone in advance.

Another option to practise ILS approaches in VFR is to use one of the apps that is available for mobile phones. There's this one for Android which is free, and for Apple devices I use this one which costs a fiver. There are several apps available, so do a bit of research.

Some of the apps allow you to create your own approach somewhere quiet where you won't annoy the neighbours, and you can also make the touchdown point at a reasonable height for safety and to avoid problems with low fly rules.

The phone's internal GPS works OK on most devices, but can be a little slow updating. For added accuracy, use an external GPS receiver. I use a Garmin GLO, which I think has WAAS and has an update rate of several times a second. It work very well with Apple devices, but I think is a little fiddly to set up with Android devices. It's also black and can get a little warm if left on the glareshield in the unlikely event of warm, sunny weather.

NOTE: You need to have a safety pilot with you and none of these apps are designed for anything other than VFR flying at your own risk.