I was listening to live KBOS ATC last week. Inbound jets were given the RWY 04R Visual Approach. This was despite that fact that it was overcast, with the ceiling around 3,000’. So my question is, in situations like this, do pilots still utilize the ILS for some/all of the approach but accept the visual for closer spacing / shorter turn to finals? Or do they truly hand fly the jet from getting on final approach, all the way to the ground?
Trying to fly the CRJ by the book and was curious.
Many pilots will back up a visual with instrumentation…especially at night and or to an unfamiliar field.
So if you’re flying the CRJ I’d probably load the ILS 04R because why not?
Hand flying is always fun - probably too many of us use AP hehe.
But yeah, if you’re cleared for the visual all you need to do is fly it to the runway while remaining clear of clouds. I think most airlines guidance is a stabilized approach by 1000’ ft AGL. Might be 1500 not sure these days. So you’ll probably fly a 5 mile base and as you establish on final you’ll be 3-4 miles away from the threshold. (In a airliner - smaller bizjets/props could fly a much tighter pattern).
Oh, one more thing. A common descent rate rule of thumb is speed cut in half (add a zero). So say vref is 130 kias - a standard 3 degree glide path (a very common descent rate) would mean you need about -650 fpm. This is helpful if you don’t have any instruments to back up your visual. If you’re 5 miles out you can judge how many feet you’ll need to lose while traveling those 5 miles.
In the case you point out, the airliners approaching KBOS will be on an IFR plan. Once contacting the approach controller, they would usually provide information like “airline 1234 expect visual rwy4”, as you pointed out. ATC would either have the aircraft vectored, or the pilot would follow the STAR as normal.
Since the airport is under visual rules, ATC would vector the aircraft and at some point typically state “Airline 1234, the airport is ten o’clock and one-zero miles, report in sight”. If the pilot calls in sight, they would be cleared the visual as you noted. Let’s assume it’s really hazy and the pilot states “no joy” or otherwise doesn’t pick out the field, ATC would then vector and state “Fly heading 070 to intercept rwy 04R localizer, track inbound.”
Note this is not a clearance for an ILS approach but enables the IFR flight to leverage the ILS system to get aligned with the runway where they would then be expected to pick up the field and land visually. This practice of “tracking the localizer inbound” can be done at the busy terminals where there are hazy conditions and long queues of arriving flights needing to turn inbound and land visually. Try listening to KATL or even KORD and you may hear this phraseology.
One thing to keep in mind is that a Visual Approach is an IFR Approach. It sounds like it would be a VFR procedure, but it is actually an IFR procedure. You maintain IFR, and are still under positive control, you are simply flying the approach using visual cues. This is often done for circling approaches and also simply to expedite a heavy flow of traffic on marginal or even VFR weather days.
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.