Organized Approach Briefing

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4RNB

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4RNB
So I keep a hard plastic pre printed checklist thing in my plane, it covers many scenarios, but not for IFR. Thus far in IFR training I've been taught to use the highliter built in to foreflight and go over plates. I think training has gone well, generally my awareness has been good and I've been ahead of the plane. Getting ready for a finish up school, reviewing materials, I see they have included WRIMTM (http://www.fredonflying.com/Articles/IFR_Refresher/0808-Organize-Your-Approach-Brief.pdf). I like the memory aid. I've never done a timed approach, like that his incorporates doing so, might save me someday.

So, having seen one organized idea, I am curious what others do? When do you do them? Are you scanning things in a pattern, setting up as you go?

Thanks
 
If it works for you, great! Personally, I find going around the plate clockwise pretty close to that and it doesn’t require memorizing another stupid mnemonic.
 
Agree with Salty on the Mnemonic point. You end up needing a mnemonic to remember all the mnemonics you are supposed to remember. On this one, it's fine, but it doesn't include crossing altitudes or the inbound course as a couple examples. I follow basically the same thing by just going down the plate.
 
Read the approach chart like a book. Left to right, top to bottom, stopping to do things (like listen to the AWOS) as you get to them. That's why the chart is formatted that way and it works very well.

WRIMTM, huh? There's another one for you, Mark! (I know @midlifeflyer won't be able to resist chiming in on this thread, we have similar opinions about mnemonics...)

EDIT: Okay, I read the article, and I specifically do NOT like this briefing technique. It skips around the chart too much. And do you really need a letter of the mnemonic to tell you "don't forget to fly the plane" (the "I", for "check your instruments").
 
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I re-read the article and there's a lot missing from that the more I look at it. Where is the step that you verify you are looking at the correct approach? (Parallel runways for example) In RussR's method that would be one of the first things to verify and an easy one to miss with WRIMTM. Do I need to make a procedure turn or not? If so, is it programmed or if I'm hand flying it, do I have the inbound and outbound course? Is there a glide slope or is it dive and drive? DA or MDA? By using the plate to brief, you touch on all of that.
The only mnemonic I've found useful is CRAFT.

EDIT - I'd add PTAC to that for approach clearances. Position Turn Altitude Clearance. After a while, you won't need it, but it helps when you haven't quite gotten to the point of learning how to listen. I find this the hardest one to get right. You get the irrelevant Position, then you get the part that matters and your brain is still processing the first part. Like CRAFT, you can anticipate parts of it, for example, you should already know which approach you are going to be cleared for.
 
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I am a big fan of briefing an approach top to bottom, left to right. Preferably 20 miles out. In training, I learned to do this in the RADAR downwind. I think it is important to tune/load the approach as you brief it.

ex. "Approach course 311" - dial in 311 on the OBS/HDG bug/whatever do-hickey your plane has.

Then as I approach the FAF I restate the DA/MDA and begin xxx feet to go.
 
RussR said:
Read the approach chart like a book. Left to right, top to bottom, stopping to do things (like listen to the AWOS) as you get to them. That's why the chart is formatted that way and it works very well.

EDIT: Okay, I read the article, and I specifically do NOT like this briefing technique. It skips around the chart too much. And do you really need a letter of the mnemonic to tell you "don't forget to fly the plane" (the "I", for "check your instruments").
Click to expand...
Didja notice that the author didn’t mention (or even highlight on the chart) setting the final approach course?
 
Jepp charts, left to right, line-by-line, top to bottom. It’s that simple for me. They’ve employed a lot of people and spent a lot of time, thought and effort to put the plate together the way they did for me to then turn around and come up with my own way of reading it. Heck they even give you the missed approach procedure again at the end, for good reason.

To me it just makes the most sense to read it the way they wrote it.

(And that has to be the worst mnemonic in the history of mnemonics. I thought the point was for them to be easy to remember?)
 
MauleSkinner said:
Didja notice that the author didn’t mention (or even highlight on the chart) setting the final approach course?
Click to expand...

I did. That's kind of crucial information.

I also wondered if that briefing mnemonic was developed before the current FAA chart format, when information was poorly scattered around. I want to say the change to the current format was about 20 years ago or so?

The article was written in 2008, and the author says he learned it "some time ago", and the guy who made it up was 70, so that leads me to believe it was based on the old chart format (which doesn't make the mnemonic any better though).
 
Rich Holt said:
I am a big fan of briefing an approach top to bottom, left to right. Preferably 20 miles out. In training, I learned to do this in the RADAR downwind. I think it is important to tune/load the approach as you brief it.

ex. "Approach course 311" - dial in 311 on the OBS/HDG bug/whatever do-hickey your plane has.

Then as I approach the FAF I restate the DA/MDA and begin xxx feet to go.
Click to expand...

You should go by minutes out rather than miles out because 20 miles out in a 152 is a whole lot different than 20 miles out in a 414
 
RussR said:
Read the approach chart like a book. Left to right, top to bottom, stopping to do things (like listen to the AWOS) as you get to them. That's why the chart is formatted that way and it works very well.

WRIMTM, huh? There's another one for you, Mark! (I know @midlifeflyer won't be able to resist chiming in on this thread, we have similar opinions about mnemonics...)

EDIT: Okay, I read the article, and I specifically do NOT like this briefing technique. It skips around the chart too much. And do you really need a letter of the mnemonic to tell you "don't forget to fly the plane" (the "I", for "check your instruments").
Click to expand...
I'm familiar with that one. The approach briefing mnemonics are the most useless of the whole bunch with absolutely nothing to redeem them. Actually, I have a feeling most of the briefin mnemonics come from the highly artificial training environment. Let's take a look at tis one:

Weather - Really? I can't even imagine a real IFR flight during which one has not been payin attention to relevant weather from the time they planned the flight two weeks earlier! That's been turned in before the in-cockpit approach briefing.

Radios - Can't possibly mean the communication frequencies I've looked at on every flight since my CFI allowed me to use the radio myself. Must mean nav frequencies. I guess that one came from some pilot or instructor thinking, "Hmmm. It's the ILS 3. The frequency is 111.3. I don't need that maybe I'll get to it later when it's mnemonic time."

Instruments - God, I sure hope you 've been paying attention to this the whole flight and aren't waiting for the approach environment.

Minimums. Now this is important. How the heck is a pilot supposed to ask themselves, "how far down can I go and how does that compare with the weather" watthour a mnemonic to assist them?

Time - OK I'll give this one. I don't think I've times an approach in a decade given the nice MAP displayed on GPS. But yeah, this could be forgotten. Although it kind of fits in with...

Missed approach - Who who possibly think of looking at that without am mnemonic.

(and you say I don't like mnemonics. Where'd you get that idea? Just don't tell Fred.)

Then, of course, there are the things pilots really do miss all the time. I found myself going missed once because some dummy didn't turn on the approach lights at the nontowered airport. I'll bet I'm not the only moron! So I've taken to circling the symbol or writing "PCL" on the chart while I brief it.

My briefing style was developed during a walk on a beach. Really. I was still a relatively new instrument pilot and had made arrangements to fly with an instructor to get some unfamiliar approaches in and blow of some major rust. I had looked at the plate for one of the approaches earlier and was mentally reviewing it. I suddenly realized that it was the Plan View that stuck in my head and the situational awareness provided by "we're coming from here, intercepting this, and going down there" put everything else into place.

So basically, my personal final briefing flow - based on top-to-bottom, left-to-right flow of the chart - comes down to checking I have the right plate, loading the primary ground-based navaid (if there is one) in the radio to get it ready for identification, and checking for that wide misalignment of the FAC with the name of the approach (and that "PCL!). Then it's straight to the plan view with coordinated glances at the Profile View to fill in the mental picture of what it looks like.
 
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