Building a deliberate flow for the modern IFR cockpit
The physical instrument scan has gotten smaller. The cross-check has gotten bigger.
Mention “instrument cross-check” to most instrument pilots and they probably picture the scan learned during instrument training—attitude, airspeed, altitude, heading and the other flight instruments, perhaps with the attitude indicator at the center of a familiar hub-and-spoke pattern. That cross-check still matters. But this isn’t another article about how to scan the flight instruments, nor is it another debate about whether modern pilots rely too much on automation.
Instead, consider the cross-check more broadly: a deliberate flow of attention that follows the flight from engine start through shutdown. Its purpose is to maintain awareness of the aircraft’s flight path and support what the FAA calls Flightpath Management.
FAA Advisory Circular 120-123 defines Flightpath Management (FPM) as “the planning, execution, and assurance of the guidance and control of aircraft trajectory and energy, in flight or on the ground.” Although the AC is directed primarily at Parts 121 and 135 operators and Part 142 training centers, the FAA encourages other operators and training providers to consider its guidance as appropriate.
That definition works just as well in a technically advanced GA airplane. The instrument cross-check is the process. Effective Flightpath Management is the objective.
A Scan and a Flow
Modern glass cockpits have made part of the traditional instrument scan easier. Information that once required our eyes to travel around the panel is now consolidated on a PFD. The physical scan has gotten smaller, but the cognitive cross-check has gotten larger.
Now we also need to monitor the flight director, Flight Mode Annunciations (FMA), autopilot, active GPS leg, selected altitude, navigation source, engine and system indications, CAS messages, terrain, weather and configuration.
A modern instrument pilot needs both a scan and a flow. The scan tells us what is happening. The flow directs our attention toward the information most important to what the airplane is doing—or is about to do.
Three questions help keep that flow oriented:
What is the airplane doing?
What is the automation doing?
What should happen next?
Above all, keep coming back to the flight path.
Before Taxi
The cross-check begins before the airplane moves. Consider a deceptively simple checklist item such as “Radios/Avionics—As Required.” That should mean much more than tuning a frequency.
Listen to ATIS or AWOS, determine the runway in use and set the altimeter. Load the flight plan and compare it with the source used to plan the flight. I also like a gross-error check of total distance. If the flight-planning app shows 412 NM and the navigator shows about 410, that is reassuring. If it shows 869, stop and find out why.
After receiving the IFR clearance, act on each element that can appropriately be preset. If cleared runway heading, then as filed, maintain 3,000, departure 119.35 and squawk 1234, set those items and verify them. Don’t rely on memory for information that can safely be programmed in the avionics before taxi.
Takeoff and Climb
As the airplane aligns with the runway, verify the runway and heading. As power is applied, check engine indications, then airspeed. After liftoff, the emphasis shifts toward attitude, airspeed, flight path, engine indications and altitude.
The cross-check should also tell us where we are in the takeoff contingency plan briefed before departure. The available response to an abnormality can change dramatically as runway remaining and altitude change. Those decision points will differ among airplanes—including multiengine aircraft and CAPS-equipped Cirrus aircraft—but the principle is universal: know which options are available now.
Changes in the environment should change the cross-check too. Entering clouds or visible moisture should bring OAT, pitot heat and possible airframe icing into the flow. It should go without saying that encountering icing conditions in an airplane not approved for flight into known icing means finding another altitude or route—or otherwise exiting the icing conditions. In a FIKI-approved airplane, a trained and current pilot should be prepared to use the ice-protection systems in accordance with the POH.
Automation after takeoff requires the same discipline. Any autoflight change should trigger an immediate look at the FMA—the “scoreboard.”
Don’t verify the button you pushed. Verify the result.
I’ve been having turbine-transition students verbalize the FMA after any autoflight change. Select HDG, look at the FMA and say what is actually displayed. Arm NAV and verbalize what the FMA actually shows. The purpose isn’t to turn a single-pilot cockpit into an airline cockpit. Instead, this process helps build the discipline of looking at the FMA after every change. I like to say that the buttons you push are rumor. The FMA—the scoreboard—is fact.
Then return to the flight path. Continually compare what the autoflight system is doing with the desired and anticipated flight path of the aircraft.
Cruise: Look Ahead
In cruise, the cross-check broadens and slows somewhat, but it never stops. Continue monitoring the flight path while periodically scanning engine and system indications, maintaining fuel awareness and planning, monitoring weather and avoiding developing threats, and requesting course or altitude adjustments necessary to provide a smooth ride for passengers.
Cruise is also the time to prepare for what comes next. Determine a top of descent. In an unpressurized airplane, I typically plan around a comfortable 500–600 fpm descent. In a pressurized turbine, a three-degree descent path is a useful planning baseline.
Before top of descent, obtain landing weather and brief the STAR, if applicable, and the planned instrument approach. Compare the procedure loaded in the GPS with the current chart. Verify the waypoint sequence, altitude and speed restrictions, and threats such as terrain and weather. Professional pilots try to have this work completed before TOD, because workload—and threats such as traffic and terrain—are about to increase. A good cruise cross-check doesn’t just monitor the flight you’re flying. It prepares you for the flight you’re about to fly.
Descent: Manage the Energy
Descent turns Flightpath Management into a three-dimensional challenge. We need to arrive at the landing field laterally and vertically positioned, but also at an airspeed and energy state that allow an orderly transition to the approach.
VNAV is an excellent tool for solving that problem. Many modern GPS navigators can provide VNAV guidance, and many modern autopilots can fly VNAV when selected. But VNAV does not relieve the pilot of managing the descent. It gives us another source of guidance to monitor and verify.
This becomes increasingly important at higher altitudes and in heavier aircraft. Some swept-wing airplanes, like the Boeing 757 I fly, simply cannot go down and slow down at the same time. Vertical planning matters.
The principle scales directly to GA: don’t let VNAV deliver you to the correct altitude with the wrong energy state.
Our goal is to arrive at the final approach fix at an altitude and airspeed that allow us to reach final landing configuration and establish a stable approach. Reaching the FAF at the correct altitude does little good if we are still above flap or gear-extension speeds and cannot get configured.
The cross-check therefore needs to look forward: Am I going to arrive there with an energy state that lets me configure and stabilize the airplane?
Approach: Verify What You Have
On an instrument approach, the cross-check should deliberately follow the waypoint sequence. As each waypoint approaches, know the altitude restriction, desired airspeed and configuration, and the automation change you expect next. Then verify that it actually happens.
For a ground-based approach, ensure the NAVAID is properly identified before relying on it for the approach. For an RNAV (GPS) approach, verify the level of service annunciated by the avionics and compare it with the minimums you briefed and set. If you briefed LPV, confirm that LPV is what the system is actually providing.
Inside the FAF, the instrument cross-check should confirm that we are maintaining a stable approach. A good target is to arrive at the FAF at an altitude, airspeed and configuration that make that possible, and to be stabilized no lower than the applicable gate—typically 1,000 feet AGL in IMC.
After Landing
The cross-check follows the airplane onto the ground. After landing, it transitions toward excellent situational awareness during taxi.
Use the airport diagram—preferably a moving map zoomed appropriately—to maintain situational awareness all the way to parking. At a towered airport, listen to and understand the taxi clearance, then compare it with the diagram. Identify the route, runway crossings, hold-short instructions and hot spots. At a non-towered airport, monitor the common traffic frequency to build a picture of other traffic while using the diagram to determine your taxi route and identify threats along it. The flying isn’t over just because the wheels are on the ground.
The Cross-Check Follows the Flight
The traditional instrument scan remains fundamental. A pilot trained entirely on glass should not assume that proficiency automatically transfers to conventional instruments, just as a pilot with an excellent traditional scan may need to develop a broader flow when transitioning to an integrated glass cockpit.
The answer isn’t less automation or more automation. It is disciplined Flightpath Management.
The cross-check should change as the flight changes, always directing attention toward what matters now and what will matter next. Every selection deserves verification. Every automation change should be checked against the FMA and then against the aircraft’s actual trajectory and energy state.
Keep asking:
What is the airplane doing?
What is the automation doing?
What should happen next?
The physical scan may have gotten smaller. The cross-check has gotten bigger.
https://media.ifrfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/25104136/quiz-category.png744993Tim Deckerhttps://media.ifrfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/14115136/IFR-Focus-Logo_White_Blue_Web-01.pngTim Decker2026-10-06 07:45:532026-10-11 18:46:08The Instrument Cross-Check Is Bigger Than You Think
Garmin’s new AXIS Flight Displays bring a new generation of avionics technology to the cockpit, with features designed to improve situational awareness and simplify cockpit operations. But what’s actually new—and what do pilots need to know about the technology behind the displays?
Garmin’s Chun Hei Ng provides a first look at AXIS. Luke will walk through key features including 3D SafeTaxi, onboard data logging, and the Flight Management System (FMS), with an emphasis on why understanding the FMS is important for pilots. He also explains what’s new with AXIS and how the various models and variants differ.
When controllers anticipate a delay, usually due to a high volume of traffic, weather, or both, pilots are usually issued a holding clearance. If the holding pattern assigned by ATC is charted, pilots are expected to hold as indicated. Holding patterns at the most generally used holding fixes are charted on Low or High Altitude En Route, Area, Departure Procedure, and Arrival Charts. When ATC issues a clearance requiring you to hold at a fix where a holding pattern is not charted, pilots are issued complete holding instructions. The holding instructions will include:
the direction from the fix
name of the fix, course
leg length (if distance instead of time)
direction of turns (if left turns are required)
the expect further clearance (EFC) time.
Let’s look at holding clearance example below to identify the various components (note the absence of turn direction indicates standard, right hand turns are expected):
Hold north (direction from the fix) of Volunteer on the 360 degree radial (name of VOR fix and course), five mile legs (leg length), expect further clearance at 15:50 zulu (EFC) time now, 15:40 zulu (current time is often issued as a courtesy so that pilots quickly know how long they may have to hold for fuel planning purposes).
Pilots are required to maintain the last assigned altitude unless a new altitude is specifically included in the holding clearance. Pilots are expected to hold on the inbound course using right turns unless instructed otherwide. In the example instructions above, the INBOUND course would be 180 degrees if holding on the 360 degree radial.
When executing a holding pattern above 14,000 feet, the inbound leg should be 1.5 minutes in duration. When at or below 14,000 feet, the inbound leg should be 1 minute. Timing of the outbound leg should begin abeam the holding fix or at the completion of the turn. Fly the first outbound leg at the appropriate standard duration, then adjust subsequent outbound legs so as to make the inbound leg the standard 1 or 1.5 minute duration. This will vary with wind.
Timing of the holding pattern should be adjusted on the outbound leg so that the inbound leg will be the standard duration.
GPS-equipped aircraft have some additional options for holding. Rather than being based on time, the leg lengths for GPS holding patterns are based on distances. The controller, or the applicable chart, specifies the length of the outbound leg. The end of the outbound leg is determined by the distance.
Charted holding procedure on the low altitude enroute chart with 5 mile legs specified.
Because the size of the holding pattern is directly proportional to the speed of the aircraft, maximum holding speeds in knots indicated airspeed (KIAS) have been designated for specific altitude ranges. Often pilots can avoid flying a holding pattern or reduce the length of time spent in the holding pattern, by slowing down on the way to the holding fix.
Maximum holding speeds in knots indicated.
Turns in the hold should be standard rate, but not more than 30 degrees. If you are using a flight director, the maximum bank angle is 25 degrees. Except when turning, you should compensate for the wind. Outbound you should triple the wind correction angle used to track the inbound course. This will distort the racetrack shape, but keep you inside the holding pattern protected airspace.
The racetrack pattern will be distored with appropriate wind correction.
The protected airspace is not charted, but it is shaped somewhat like and centered upon the holding pattern. This puts about 60% of the protected area on the holding side, so the majority of your maneuvering should be on this side.
The majority of your maneuvering should be on the hodling side as this is where the majority of the protected airspace exists.
Holding protected airspace is designed based in part on pilot compliance with three recommended holding pattern entry procedures.
Parallel Procedure. When approaching the holding fix from parrell sector, the parallel entry procedure would be to turn to a heading to parallel the holding course outbound on the nonholding side for one minute, turn in the direction of the holding pattern through more than 180 degrees, and return to the holding fix or intercept the holding course inbound.
When approaching the holding fix from anywhere in the teardrop sector, the teardrop entry procedure would be to fly to the fix, turn outbound to a heading for a 30 degree teardrop entry within the pattern (on the holding side) for a period of one minute, then turn in the direction of the holding pattern to intercept the inbound holding course.
When approaching the holding fix from anywhere in the direct sector, the direct entry procedure would be to fly directly to the fix and turn to follow the holding pattern.
To help determine which sector you fall within when approaching a holding fix, look at where the outbound course falls on your heading indicator or H-S-I when flying direct to the fix. Divide the indicator into three segments as depicted below. And for a standard right-turn hold, and you can visualize exactly what kind of entry is expected.
You can visualize exactly what kind of entry is expected when placing the outbound course on the heading indicator when flying direct to the fix.
The teardrop section is the smallest, only 70 degrees on the right of the nose. At the fix, turn to a heading 30 degrees from the outbound course toward the holding side for one minute. Then turn in the direction of the holding pattern to intercept the holding course.
The direct entry section is the largest, covering a 180-degree arc. Simply turn right outbound and fly the pattern.
The parallel segment is 110 degrees to the left of the nose. Turn to the outbound heading, correct for wind if known, fly for one minute, and then turn toward the holding pattern more than 180 degrees. Return to the holding fix or intercept the holding course inbound.
This method of visualizing the outbound course on the heading indicator is also referred to as the “thumb” method because placing your thumb to the right (for right-hand turns) or the left (for left-hand turns) will approximate the teardrop entry area as decpicted below.
Placing your thumb to the left or right of your current heading can help identify the correct holding entry procedure.
A non-standard holding pattern uses left turns, and the entry procedure diagram has to be flipped so the teardrop section is in the upper left. For non-standard left turns, use your left thumb to mark the 70-degree teardrop section, and the remaining sections fall into place. Right turns, right thumb.
The entry procedure diagram has to be flipped so the teardrop section is in the upper left for left hand turns.
It’s worth noting that modern GPS navigators can be programmed for holding procedures and coupled with an autopilot, can also fully execute a hold. There are also devices available to help determine the correct entry.
Standard Terminal Arrivals, or STARs, can seem intimidating when you first look at the chart. Multiple transitions, fixes, and routes can make a seemingly simple arrival look far more complicated than it really is. In this video tip, we’ll use the FINGER FIVE arrival into the Dallas area to break down how the different transitions come together, compare traditional VOR/DME-based STARs with modern RNAV arrivals, and look at how an IFR-approved GPS can make flying these procedures easier to understand and manage.
This video tip is from Sporty’s Instrument Rating Course. If you want to sharpen your skills and build more confidence in the system, Sporty’s Instrument Rating Course covers these required reports in detail—along with real-world scenarios and ATC audio to help you sound like a pro on every flight.
I never liked the saying, “plan the flight and fly the plan.” Most GA flying requires bending the plan to fit the reality of the moment—or ends with the breaking of something valuable. When the aircraft capabilities are limited and crew resource management consists of talking to oneself, flexibility is king.
A more useful statement might be, “plan the flight to have a plan.” These days of iPad route planning and magenta lines allow perilous absence of forethought. This was hammered home to me one day while climbing VFR towards my GPS-direct course. I realized I had absolutely no idea what heading that was. I just knew it was up and to the left. That’s not a plan. That’s tagging along for the ride.
The right plan enables flexibility by providing options, yet constraining them within safe boundaries. A perfect example of this is the under-appreciated contact approach.
See and Avoid
Simply put, a Contact Approach lets you keep your IFR clearance and find your own path to the runway. The requirements are remaining clear of clouds with a mile visibility and not dying as you get to the pavement.
Suppose you’re approaching an airport from the south that has only one published approach coming in from the north. As you fly over the airport, you see the runway and a clear path to descend and join final. Requesting and receiving a clearance for a contact approach lets you descend and land without trucking miles past your destination only to turn around and come back.
However, you can request a contact approach and still fly most or all of a published approach as you see fit, so long as you stay visual. You don’t even need the destination airport in sight. Imagine cruising along on an intermediate leg of a published approach that’s taking you in and out of clouds with turbulence or icing.
When you’re in the clear, request a contact approach. Once granted, you can avoid the clouds with climbs, descents, or deviations left or right of the approach course. You could still follow a published segment to help find the airport, but 400 feet lower, or a mile right of course.
Doesn’t that remove obstacle protection? Absolutely. You’re now responsible for staying out of trouble, but that might be easy in visual conditions, as they exist on a particular day.
The freedom is similar to a Special VFR clearance, however, you’re still legally IFR. Special VFR clearances are for specific blocks of airspace: the Class D surface area around a towered airport or a Class E surface area around an uncontrolled airport. Technically, the pilot has no less-than-VFR freedom outside that airspace. The contact approach clearance covers operation in any controlled airspace.
Staying IFR also keeps an IMC escape hatch open for you: With a Special VFR clearance, reentering the clouds would be an emergency; with a contact approach, it’s just a missed.
Well, it’s a missed without a procedure, which means the onus is on you to stay out of the rocks and get back to ATC immediately. Contact approaches shouldn’t end with reentering IMC, but if you have a general plan you’ll be ready for that corner case.
Which all brings us back to planning for flexibility. Flying IFR on good-weather days, you should be ready for the visual. On marginal days, you can fly the charted black lines to your destination airport but be ready for a switch to a contact approach in case the situation warrants it. That’s what masterful use of the system is all about.
Educating ATC
While most controllers are happy to offload responsibility to you and clear you for the contact approach, some controllers meet a request with, “Confirm you’re cancelling IFR?”
Whether they forgot that part of the ATC operating guidelines or just aren’t enthusiastic for something out of the ordinary, you may have to clarify. “I’m staying IFR. I’m requesting a contact approach, which is like a visual but requested by the pilot and only needs a mile visibility.”
The silence following may be them asking around the control room. Hopefully, your clearance will come back, along with all the flexibility it allows.
Reader Poll
https://media.ifrfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/08101213/practical-IFR-contact-approach.png10001250Jeff Van Westhttps://media.ifrfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/14115136/IFR-Focus-Logo_White_Blue_Web-01.pngJeff Van West2026-09-15 08:55:262026-09-08 10:12:20Practical IFR: The Contact Approach
During my first checkouts in airplanes with autopilots, the autopilot was usually treated as a footnote at the end of the flight; a sort of “bonus” item to play around with in cruise and figure out how it works. That’s a terrible strategy for a modern autopilot.
Today’s systems can dramatically lighten your workload. They manage lateral and vertical guidance in almost any phase of flight, fly approaches and missed approaches, and can even prevent (and recover from) a flight upset. They can also become an unpredictable distraction at exactly the wrong moment.
You can’t gain the benefits and avoid the pitfalls by simply knowing what button to press. You must understand how the autopilot thinks, verify it’s doing what you want, anticipate what it will do next, and, most importantly, recognize when it’s not doing what you want and correct it.
Here are six habits you can adopt to reap the full benefits of a modern autopilot.
Use the Autopilot as a Crewmember
The engaged autopilot can be thought of as the Pilot Flying, and you are the Pilot Monitoring.
Crew operations designate a Pilot Flying (PF), whose main job is simply controlling the airplane, and a Pilot Monitoring (PM), who handles everything else—navigation, communication, checklists, ATC, and so on. In your case, the engaged autopilot can be thought of as the Pilot Flying, and you are the Pilot Monitoring.
There’s one important catch: Your PF (the autopilot) is like a trainee who flies really well but doesn’t think for itself. It will never question a bad command. Instead, it will follow the bad instructions with impressive precision.
Avoid this by always following up your button push with a check of the status strip, sometimes called “the scoreboard.” On a Garmin PFD, this is the display at the top center of the PFD showing engaged modes in green and armed modes in white. Other systems have different conventions, but the key habit is universal: Command a mode, then verify it.
When you have strong mode awareness, you don’t need to micromanage your autopilot’s every control movement. In fact, doing that can cancel much of the workload benefit. But you mustalways know what’s active, what’s armed, and what will happen next.
Don’t just monitor the autopilot—anticipate it.
The most effective way to use automation is to know what it should do next before it does it.
Select the Right Modes for Climbs Versus Descents
For most climbs, indicated airspeed (IAS) mode or flight level change (FLC) is the best choice.
For most climbs, indicated airspeed (IAS) mode or flight level change (FLC) is the best choice. That’s because as the airplane climbs and horsepower decreases, the autopilot protects airspeed. If necessary, it will sacrifice climb rate in order to always maintain the safe flying speed you command. Vertical speed (VS) mode, by contrast, will continue to pitch up to try to maintain climb rate even as airspeed deteriorates. If you ask for 700 feet per minute and you’re only doing 500 fpm, the airplane will pitch up—even if it has insufficient power to ever reach 700 fpm. Depending on your system, the result could be a stall, underspeed protection kicking in, or an automatic autopilot disconnect. Not good.
That doesn’t mean VS mode is forbidden in climbs. For a short climb of 500 or 1000 feet, it may be the simplest tool.
For descents, VS mode works best, so long as you are fine controlling your airspeed with power adjustments. That caveat hints at a few situations where IAS could be better in descent. In turbulence, IAS mode can target an appropriate turbulence speed and keep you comfortably below maneuvering speed. And if you have gear or flaps extended and want to be sure you don’t accidentally overspeed them in a descent, IAS mode can do that.
Some autopilots don’t offer both IAS and VS modes. The larger principle is understanding what each mode you do have protects for and what you’re responsible for managing, and planning accordingly.
Follow an Order of Operations
For climbs and descents, the standard order is to first tell the autopilot where to go and then how to get there.
For climbs and descents, the standard order is to first tell the autopilot where to go and then how to get there. To climb from 4000 to 8000 feet, first set 8000 in the altitude preselect (where to go), then engage IAS mode and set the appropriate climb speed (how to get there). Of course, you still must manually set climb power and configuration. The same applies to descent. Set the target altitude first, and then command the descent (and adjust power and configuration as necessary).
This order guarantees that every climb or descent has an endpoint. If you set a climb or descent before selecting an altitude, you’ve temporarily created a situation where the plane will climb or descend indefinitely. Any distraction before you finish the task by setting the altitude could leave the target at “indefinitely.” In a descent, “indefinitely” means “into the ground.”
The principle extends to lateral modes too. If ATC clears you direct to a waypoint, first activate direct-to on the navigator, and then engage NAV mode. Tell it where to go, then how to get there.
Know Your NAV Modes
NAV modes often won’t capture unless you’re already close to the course.
Most modern, integrated autopilots make lateral navigation simple. On a Garmin GFC, the single NAV button can intelligently follow GPS, a VOR radial, a localizer, or even a back course. When you press the NAV button, the autopilot’s brain knows the appropriate tracking logic from context, and annunciates what it’s actually following.
Older systems aren’t always that smart and may have different modes for different sources, and may simply chase needle deflection without any awareness of what the GPS is doing. On these older systems, GPS Roll Steering (GPSS) can bridge the gap between old and new tech by sending GPS guidance in the form of heading commands that are followed in HDG mode. The details vary, so know what your installation actually does.
Remember, NAV modes often won’t capture unless you’re already close to the course. Garmin autopilots will capture NAV courses when the CDI is within half-scale deflection. Otherwise, they’ll simply arm the mode. That leaves you responsible for getting close enough to the course that it will capture.
Press APR Only When Appropriate
APR also arms approach vertical guidance.
On modern Garmin autopilots, the APR button is straightforward. Laterally, it does the same thing that NAV does, arming or capturing whatever navigation source is chosen. The difference is APR also arms approach vertical guidance. That’s for both approved vertical guidance, like an LPV glidepath or ILS glideslope, and advisory “+V” vertical guidance on other RNAV approaches.
That makes for a simple habit: Press APR when you’re cleared for the approach. That way, when the approach guidance eventually appears and centers, the autopilot will capture it. On the other hand, if ATC tells you only to “join the localizer,” you haven’t necessarily been cleared to descend on the approach, so you don’t want to follow vertical guidance. In that case, use NAV to capture the localizer, but don’t press APR until you’re actually cleared for the approach.
It’s also important to understand what APR does not do. It doesn’t load or activate the approach or do anything with the GPS. And it doesn’t follow non-approach VNAV guidance—that’s a whole other topic.
Older autopilots may use APR differently, so understand the logic in your airplane rather than assuming old patterns will transfer.
The other thing APR does not do on most autopilots is capture a preselected altitude. It’s up to you to discontinue the descent at DA, or go visual and continue for landing.
Know How and When to Turn it Off
Every autopilot user should know every way to disconnect it, not just the AP button on the yoke or controller. On typical installations this usually includes moving the electric trim and pulling the autopilot circuit breaker.
The disconnect switch often also interrupts the electric trim when pressed and held, which is crucially important in a trim runaway. The aircraft-specific AFM Supplement for your installation contains abnormal and emergency procedures like this that you should add to your checklist. It also contains regulatory limitations that are just as binding as those in your POH. For example, a Garmin GFC autopilot typically must be disengaged until 800 AGL in most situations. The exception is that they can be used until 200 AGL on approaches. GFC installations usually have airspeed limits, a fuel imbalance limit, and a requirement to operate from the left seat.
Autopilot procedures, avionics interactions, and specific buttons change from airplane to airplane—but the habits don’t. An autopilot isn’t merely a “bonus item.” It’s a tool that demands the right mindset from the pilot. Learn your system and establish a mindset to match. The right autopilot habits will lower your workload and allow you to pay more attention to the things that really matter.
Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from material in PilotWorkshops’ new Garmin GFC Autopilots: Next Level online course, taught by Ryan Koch. The 140-minute course takes these concepts further with progressively complex flights covering everything from autopilot fundamentals to departures, approaches, VNAV, missed approaches, holds, and non-RNAV procedures.
Learn more about the course and try the free demo at Sportys.com.
https://media.ifrfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/26155317/You-Know-How-to-Use-Your-Autopilot.-But-Do-You-Understand-It.png10001250Ryan Kochhttps://media.ifrfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/14115136/IFR-Focus-Logo_White_Blue_Web-01.pngRyan Koch2026-09-11 08:55:332026-09-11 09:28:52Don’t Just Press Buttons: Modern Autopilot Habits That Matter
The Instrument Cross-Check Is Bigger Than You Think
/by Tim DeckerBuilding a deliberate flow for the modern IFR cockpit
The physical instrument scan has gotten smaller. The cross-check has gotten bigger.
Mention “instrument cross-check” to most instrument pilots and they probably picture the scan learned during instrument training—attitude, airspeed, altitude, heading and the other flight instruments, perhaps with the attitude indicator at the center of a familiar hub-and-spoke pattern. That cross-check still matters. But this isn’t another article about how to scan the flight instruments, nor is it another debate about whether modern pilots rely too much on automation.
Instead, consider the cross-check more broadly: a deliberate flow of attention that follows the flight from engine start through shutdown. Its purpose is to maintain awareness of the aircraft’s flight path and support what the FAA calls Flightpath Management.
FAA Advisory Circular 120-123 defines Flightpath Management (FPM) as “the planning, execution, and assurance of the guidance and control of aircraft trajectory and energy, in flight or on the ground.” Although the AC is directed primarily at Parts 121 and 135 operators and Part 142 training centers, the FAA encourages other operators and training providers to consider its guidance as appropriate.
That definition works just as well in a technically advanced GA airplane. The instrument cross-check is the process. Effective Flightpath Management is the objective.
A Scan and a Flow
Modern glass cockpits have made part of the traditional instrument scan easier. Information that once required our eyes to travel around the panel is now consolidated on a PFD. The physical scan has gotten smaller, but the cognitive cross-check has gotten larger.
Now we also need to monitor the flight director, Flight Mode Annunciations (FMA), autopilot, active GPS leg, selected altitude, navigation source, engine and system indications, CAS messages, terrain, weather and configuration.
A modern instrument pilot needs both a scan and a flow. The scan tells us what is happening. The flow directs our attention toward the information most important to what the airplane is doing—or is about to do.
Three questions help keep that flow oriented:
What is the airplane doing?
What is the automation doing?
What should happen next?
Above all, keep coming back to the flight path.
Before Taxi
The cross-check begins before the airplane moves. Consider a deceptively simple checklist item such as “Radios/Avionics—As Required.” That should mean much more than tuning a frequency.
Listen to ATIS or AWOS, determine the runway in use and set the altimeter. Load the flight plan and compare it with the source used to plan the flight. I also like a gross-error check of total distance. If the flight-planning app shows 412 NM and the navigator shows about 410, that is reassuring. If it shows 869, stop and find out why.
After receiving the IFR clearance, act on each element that can appropriately be preset. If cleared runway heading, then as filed, maintain 3,000, departure 119.35 and squawk 1234, set those items and verify them. Don’t rely on memory for information that can safely be programmed in the avionics before taxi.
Takeoff and Climb
As the airplane aligns with the runway, verify the runway and heading. As power is applied, check engine indications, then airspeed. After liftoff, the emphasis shifts toward attitude, airspeed, flight path, engine indications and altitude.
The cross-check should also tell us where we are in the takeoff contingency plan briefed before departure. The available response to an abnormality can change dramatically as runway remaining and altitude change. Those decision points will differ among airplanes—including multiengine aircraft and CAPS-equipped Cirrus aircraft—but the principle is universal: know which options are available now.
Changes in the environment should change the cross-check too. Entering clouds or visible moisture should bring OAT, pitot heat and possible airframe icing into the flow. It should go without saying that encountering icing conditions in an airplane not approved for flight into known icing means finding another altitude or route—or otherwise exiting the icing conditions. In a FIKI-approved airplane, a trained and current pilot should be prepared to use the ice-protection systems in accordance with the POH.
Automation after takeoff requires the same discipline. Any autoflight change should trigger an immediate look at the FMA—the “scoreboard.”
Don’t verify the button you pushed. Verify the result.
I’ve been having turbine-transition students verbalize the FMA after any autoflight change. Select HDG, look at the FMA and say what is actually displayed. Arm NAV and verbalize what the FMA actually shows. The purpose isn’t to turn a single-pilot cockpit into an airline cockpit. Instead, this process helps build the discipline of looking at the FMA after every change. I like to say that the buttons you push are rumor. The FMA—the scoreboard—is fact.
Then return to the flight path. Continually compare what the autoflight system is doing with the desired and anticipated flight path of the aircraft.
Cruise: Look Ahead
In cruise, the cross-check broadens and slows somewhat, but it never stops. Continue monitoring the flight path while periodically scanning engine and system indications, maintaining fuel awareness and planning, monitoring weather and avoiding developing threats, and requesting course or altitude adjustments necessary to provide a smooth ride for passengers.
Cruise is also the time to prepare for what comes next. Determine a top of descent. In an unpressurized airplane, I typically plan around a comfortable 500–600 fpm descent. In a pressurized turbine, a three-degree descent path is a useful planning baseline.
Before top of descent, obtain landing weather and brief the STAR, if applicable, and the planned instrument approach. Compare the procedure loaded in the GPS with the current chart. Verify the waypoint sequence, altitude and speed restrictions, and threats such as terrain and weather. Professional pilots try to have this work completed before TOD, because workload—and threats such as traffic and terrain—are about to increase. A good cruise cross-check doesn’t just monitor the flight you’re flying. It prepares you for the flight you’re about to fly.
Descent: Manage the Energy
Descent turns Flightpath Management into a three-dimensional challenge. We need to arrive at the landing field laterally and vertically positioned, but also at an airspeed and energy state that allow an orderly transition to the approach.
VNAV is an excellent tool for solving that problem. Many modern GPS navigators can provide VNAV guidance, and many modern autopilots can fly VNAV when selected. But VNAV does not relieve the pilot of managing the descent. It gives us another source of guidance to monitor and verify.
This becomes increasingly important at higher altitudes and in heavier aircraft. Some swept-wing airplanes, like the Boeing 757 I fly, simply cannot go down and slow down at the same time. Vertical planning matters.
The principle scales directly to GA: don’t let VNAV deliver you to the correct altitude with the wrong energy state.
Our goal is to arrive at the final approach fix at an altitude and airspeed that allow us to reach final landing configuration and establish a stable approach. Reaching the FAF at the correct altitude does little good if we are still above flap or gear-extension speeds and cannot get configured.
The cross-check therefore needs to look forward: Am I going to arrive there with an energy state that lets me configure and stabilize the airplane?
Approach: Verify What You Have
On an instrument approach, the cross-check should deliberately follow the waypoint sequence. As each waypoint approaches, know the altitude restriction, desired airspeed and configuration, and the automation change you expect next. Then verify that it actually happens.
For a ground-based approach, ensure the NAVAID is properly identified before relying on it for the approach. For an RNAV (GPS) approach, verify the level of service annunciated by the avionics and compare it with the minimums you briefed and set. If you briefed LPV, confirm that LPV is what the system is actually providing.
Inside the FAF, the instrument cross-check should confirm that we are maintaining a stable approach. A good target is to arrive at the FAF at an altitude, airspeed and configuration that make that possible, and to be stabilized no lower than the applicable gate—typically 1,000 feet AGL in IMC.
After Landing
The cross-check follows the airplane onto the ground. After landing, it transitions toward excellent situational awareness during taxi.
Use the airport diagram—preferably a moving map zoomed appropriately—to maintain situational awareness all the way to parking. At a towered airport, listen to and understand the taxi clearance, then compare it with the diagram. Identify the route, runway crossings, hold-short instructions and hot spots. At a non-towered airport, monitor the common traffic frequency to build a picture of other traffic while using the diagram to determine your taxi route and identify threats along it. The flying isn’t over just because the wheels are on the ground.
The Cross-Check Follows the Flight
The traditional instrument scan remains fundamental. A pilot trained entirely on glass should not assume that proficiency automatically transfers to conventional instruments, just as a pilot with an excellent traditional scan may need to develop a broader flow when transitioning to an integrated glass cockpit.
The answer isn’t less automation or more automation. It is disciplined Flightpath Management.
The cross-check should change as the flight changes, always directing attention toward what matters now and what will matter next. Every selection deserves verification. Every automation change should be checked against the FMA and then against the aircraft’s actual trajectory and energy state.
Keep asking:
What is the airplane doing?
What is the automation doing?
What should happen next?
The physical scan may have gotten smaller. The cross-check has gotten bigger.
Webinar Video: Garmin AXIS Flight Displays
/by IFR Focus TeamA First Look at What’s New
Garmin’s Chun Hei Ng provides a first look at AXIS. Luke will walk through key features including 3D SafeTaxi, onboard data logging, and the Flight Management System (FMS), with an emphasis on why understanding the FMS is important for pilots. He also explains what’s new with AXIS and how the various models and variants differ.
IFR Holding Procedures Explained: A Pilot’s Guide to Holding Patterns
/by Eric RadtkeWhen controllers anticipate a delay, usually due to a high volume of traffic, weather, or both, pilots are usually issued a holding clearance. If the holding pattern assigned by ATC is charted, pilots are expected to hold as indicated. Holding patterns at the most generally used holding fixes are charted on Low or High Altitude En Route, Area, Departure Procedure, and Arrival Charts. When ATC issues a clearance requiring you to hold at a fix where a holding pattern is not charted, pilots are issued complete holding instructions. The holding instructions will include:
Let’s look at holding clearance example below to identify the various components (note the absence of turn direction indicates standard, right hand turns are expected):
Hold north (direction from the fix) of Volunteer on the 360 degree radial (name of VOR fix and course), five mile legs (leg length), expect further clearance at 15:50 zulu (EFC) time now, 15:40 zulu (current time is often issued as a courtesy so that pilots quickly know how long they may have to hold for fuel planning purposes).
Pilots are required to maintain the last assigned altitude unless a new altitude is specifically included in the holding clearance. Pilots are expected to hold on the inbound course using right turns unless instructed otherwide. In the example instructions above, the INBOUND course would be 180 degrees if holding on the 360 degree radial.
When executing a holding pattern above 14,000 feet, the inbound leg should be 1.5 minutes in duration. When at or below 14,000 feet, the inbound leg should be 1 minute. Timing of the outbound leg should begin abeam the holding fix or at the completion of the turn. Fly the first outbound leg at the appropriate standard duration, then adjust subsequent outbound legs so as to make the inbound leg the standard 1 or 1.5 minute duration. This will vary with wind.
Timing of the holding pattern should be adjusted on the outbound leg so that the inbound leg will be the standard duration.
GPS-equipped aircraft have some additional options for holding. Rather than being based on time, the leg lengths for GPS holding patterns are based on distances. The controller, or the applicable chart, specifies the length of the outbound leg. The end of the outbound leg is determined by the distance.
Charted holding procedure on the low altitude enroute chart with 5 mile legs specified.
Because the size of the holding pattern is directly proportional to the speed of the aircraft, maximum holding speeds in knots indicated airspeed (KIAS) have been designated for specific altitude ranges. Often pilots can avoid flying a holding pattern or reduce the length of time spent in the holding pattern, by slowing down on the way to the holding fix.
Maximum holding speeds in knots indicated.
Turns in the hold should be standard rate, but not more than 30 degrees. If you are using a flight director, the maximum bank angle is 25 degrees. Except when turning, you should compensate for the wind. Outbound you should triple the wind correction angle used to track the inbound course. This will distort the racetrack shape, but keep you inside the holding pattern protected airspace.
The racetrack pattern will be distored with appropriate wind correction.
The protected airspace is not charted, but it is shaped somewhat like and centered upon the holding pattern. This puts about 60% of the protected area on the holding side, so the majority of your maneuvering should be on this side.
The majority of your maneuvering should be on the hodling side as this is where the majority of the protected airspace exists.
Holding protected airspace is designed based in part on pilot compliance with three recommended holding pattern entry procedures.
Parallel Procedure. When approaching the holding fix from parrell sector, the parallel entry procedure would be to turn to a heading to parallel the holding course outbound on the nonholding side for one minute, turn in the direction of the holding pattern through more than 180 degrees, and return to the holding fix or intercept the holding course inbound.
When approaching the holding fix from anywhere in the teardrop sector, the teardrop entry procedure would be to fly to the fix, turn outbound to a heading for a 30 degree teardrop entry within the pattern (on the holding side) for a period of one minute, then turn in the direction of the holding pattern to intercept the inbound holding course.
When approaching the holding fix from anywhere in the direct sector, the direct entry procedure would be to fly directly to the fix and turn to follow the holding pattern.
To help determine which sector you fall within when approaching a holding fix, look at where the outbound course falls on your heading indicator or H-S-I when flying direct to the fix. Divide the indicator into three segments as depicted below. And for a standard right-turn hold, and you can visualize exactly what kind of entry is expected.
You can visualize exactly what kind of entry is expected when placing the outbound course on the heading indicator when flying direct to the fix.
The teardrop section is the smallest, only 70 degrees on the right of the nose. At the fix, turn to a heading 30 degrees from the outbound course toward the holding side for one minute. Then turn in the direction of the holding pattern to intercept the holding course.
The direct entry section is the largest, covering a 180-degree arc. Simply turn right outbound and fly the pattern.
The parallel segment is 110 degrees to the left of the nose. Turn to the outbound heading, correct for wind if known, fly for one minute, and then turn toward the holding pattern more than 180 degrees. Return to the holding fix or intercept the holding course inbound.
This method of visualizing the outbound course on the heading indicator is also referred to as the “thumb” method because placing your thumb to the right (for right-hand turns) or the left (for left-hand turns) will approximate the teardrop entry area as decpicted below.
Placing your thumb to the left or right of your current heading can help identify the correct holding entry procedure.
A non-standard holding pattern uses left turns, and the entry procedure diagram has to be flipped so the teardrop section is in the upper left. For non-standard left turns, use your left thumb to mark the 70-degree teardrop section, and the remaining sections fall into place. Right turns, right thumb.
The entry procedure diagram has to be flipped so the teardrop section is in the upper left for left hand turns.
It’s worth noting that modern GPS navigators can be programmed for holding procedures and coupled with an autopilot, can also fully execute a hold. There are also devices available to help determine the correct entry.
Test your holding pattern entry knowledge in this interactive holding exercise from Sporty’s Instrument Rating Course.
Video Tip: Understanding STARs
/by IFR Focus TeamStandard Terminal Arrivals, or STARs, can seem intimidating when you first look at the chart. Multiple transitions, fixes, and routes can make a seemingly simple arrival look far more complicated than it really is. In this video tip, we’ll use the FINGER FIVE arrival into the Dallas area to break down how the different transitions come together, compare traditional VOR/DME-based STARs with modern RNAV arrivals, and look at how an IFR-approved GPS can make flying these procedures easier to understand and manage.
This video tip is from Sporty’s Instrument Rating Course. If you want to sharpen your skills and build more confidence in the system, Sporty’s Instrument Rating Course covers these required reports in detail—along with real-world scenarios and ATC audio to help you sound like a pro on every flight.
Practical IFR: The Contact Approach
/by Jeff Van WestThe Plan? Fly Two Approaches at Once, Of Course
I never liked the saying, “plan the flight and fly the plan.” Most GA flying requires bending the plan to fit the reality of the moment—or ends with the breaking of something valuable. When the aircraft capabilities are limited and crew resource management consists of talking to oneself, flexibility is king.
A more useful statement might be, “plan the flight to have a plan.” These days of iPad route planning and magenta lines allow perilous absence of forethought. This was hammered home to me one day while climbing VFR towards my GPS-direct course. I realized I had absolutely no idea what heading that was. I just knew it was up and to the left. That’s not a plan. That’s tagging along for the ride.
The right plan enables flexibility by providing options, yet constraining them within safe boundaries. A perfect example of this is the under-appreciated contact approach.
See and Avoid
Suppose you’re approaching an airport from the south that has only one published approach coming in from the north. As you fly over the airport, you see the runway and a clear path to descend and join final. Requesting and receiving a clearance for a contact approach lets you descend and land without trucking miles past your destination only to turn around and come back.
However, you can request a contact approach and still fly most or all of a published approach as you see fit, so long as you stay visual. You don’t even need the destination airport in sight. Imagine cruising along on an intermediate leg of a published approach that’s taking you in and out of clouds with turbulence or icing.
When you’re in the clear, request a contact approach. Once granted, you can avoid the clouds with climbs, descents, or deviations left or right of the approach course. You could still follow a published segment to help find the airport, but 400 feet lower, or a mile right of course.
Doesn’t that remove obstacle protection? Absolutely. You’re now responsible for staying out of trouble, but that might be easy in visual conditions, as they exist on a particular day.
The freedom is similar to a Special VFR clearance, however, you’re still legally IFR. Special VFR clearances are for specific blocks of airspace: the Class D surface area around a towered airport or a Class E surface area around an uncontrolled airport. Technically, the pilot has no less-than-VFR freedom outside that airspace. The contact approach clearance covers operation in any controlled airspace.
Staying IFR also keeps an IMC escape hatch open for you: With a Special VFR clearance, reentering the clouds would be an emergency; with a contact approach, it’s just a missed.
Well, it’s a missed without a procedure, which means the onus is on you to stay out of the rocks and get back to ATC immediately. Contact approaches shouldn’t end with reentering IMC, but if you have a general plan you’ll be ready for that corner case.
Which all brings us back to planning for flexibility. Flying IFR on good-weather days, you should be ready for the visual. On marginal days, you can fly the charted black lines to your destination airport but be ready for a switch to a contact approach in case the situation warrants it. That’s what masterful use of the system is all about.
Educating ATC
While most controllers are happy to offload responsibility to you and clear you for the contact approach, some controllers meet a request with, “Confirm you’re cancelling IFR?”
Whether they forgot that part of the ATC operating guidelines or just aren’t enthusiastic for something out of the ordinary, you may have to clarify. “I’m staying IFR. I’m requesting a contact approach, which is like a visual but requested by the pilot and only needs a mile visibility.”
The silence following may be them asking around the control room. Hopefully, your clearance will come back, along with all the flexibility it allows.
Reader Poll
Don’t Just Press Buttons: Modern Autopilot Habits That Matter
/by Ryan KochDuring my first checkouts in airplanes with autopilots, the autopilot was usually treated as a footnote at the end of the flight; a sort of “bonus” item to play around with in cruise and figure out how it works. That’s a terrible strategy for a modern autopilot.
Today’s systems can dramatically lighten your workload. They manage lateral and vertical guidance in almost any phase of flight, fly approaches and missed approaches, and can even prevent (and recover from) a flight upset. They can also become an unpredictable distraction at exactly the wrong moment.
You can’t gain the benefits and avoid the pitfalls by simply knowing what button to press. You must understand how the autopilot thinks, verify it’s doing what you want, anticipate what it will do next, and, most importantly, recognize when it’s not doing what you want and correct it.
Here are six habits you can adopt to reap the full benefits of a modern autopilot.
Use the Autopilot as a Crewmember
The engaged autopilot can be thought of as the Pilot Flying, and you are the Pilot Monitoring.
Crew operations designate a Pilot Flying (PF), whose main job is simply controlling the airplane, and a Pilot Monitoring (PM), who handles everything else—navigation, communication, checklists, ATC, and so on. In your case, the engaged autopilot can be thought of as the Pilot Flying, and you are the Pilot Monitoring.
There’s one important catch: Your PF (the autopilot) is like a trainee who flies really well but doesn’t think for itself. It will never question a bad command. Instead, it will follow the bad instructions with impressive precision.
Avoid this by always following up your button push with a check of the status strip, sometimes called “the scoreboard.” On a Garmin PFD, this is the display at the top center of the PFD showing engaged modes in green and armed modes in white. Other systems have different conventions, but the key habit is universal: Command a mode, then verify it.
When you have strong mode awareness, you don’t need to micromanage your autopilot’s every control movement. In fact, doing that can cancel much of the workload benefit. But you must always know what’s active, what’s armed, and what will happen next.
Don’t just monitor the autopilot—anticipate it.
The most effective way to use automation is to know what it should do next before it does it.
Select the Right Modes for Climbs Versus Descents
For most climbs, indicated airspeed (IAS) mode or flight level change (FLC) is the best choice.
For most climbs, indicated airspeed (IAS) mode or flight level change (FLC) is the best choice. That’s because as the airplane climbs and horsepower decreases, the autopilot protects airspeed. If necessary, it will sacrifice climb rate in order to always maintain the safe flying speed you command. Vertical speed (VS) mode, by contrast, will continue to pitch up to try to maintain climb rate even as airspeed deteriorates. If you ask for 700 feet per minute and you’re only doing 500 fpm, the airplane will pitch up—even if it has insufficient power to ever reach 700 fpm. Depending on your system, the result could be a stall, underspeed protection kicking in, or an automatic autopilot disconnect. Not good.
That doesn’t mean VS mode is forbidden in climbs. For a short climb of 500 or 1000 feet, it may be the simplest tool.
For descents, VS mode works best, so long as you are fine controlling your airspeed with power adjustments. That caveat hints at a few situations where IAS could be better in descent. In turbulence, IAS mode can target an appropriate turbulence speed and keep you comfortably below maneuvering speed. And if you have gear or flaps extended and want to be sure you don’t accidentally overspeed them in a descent, IAS mode can do that.
Some autopilots don’t offer both IAS and VS modes. The larger principle is understanding what each mode you do have protects for and what you’re responsible for managing, and planning accordingly.
Follow an Order of Operations
For climbs and descents, the standard order is to first tell the autopilot where to go and then how to get there.
For climbs and descents, the standard order is to first tell the autopilot where to go and then how to get there. To climb from 4000 to 8000 feet, first set 8000 in the altitude preselect (where to go), then engage IAS mode and set the appropriate climb speed (how to get there). Of course, you still must manually set climb power and configuration. The same applies to descent. Set the target altitude first, and then command the descent (and adjust power and configuration as necessary).
This order guarantees that every climb or descent has an endpoint. If you set a climb or descent before selecting an altitude, you’ve temporarily created a situation where the plane will climb or descend indefinitely. Any distraction before you finish the task by setting the altitude could leave the target at “indefinitely.” In a descent, “indefinitely” means “into the ground.”
The principle extends to lateral modes too. If ATC clears you direct to a waypoint, first activate direct-to on the navigator, and then engage NAV mode. Tell it where to go, then how to get there.
Know Your NAV Modes
NAV modes often won’t capture unless you’re already close to the course.
Most modern, integrated autopilots make lateral navigation simple. On a Garmin GFC, the single NAV button can intelligently follow GPS, a VOR radial, a localizer, or even a back course. When you press the NAV button, the autopilot’s brain knows the appropriate tracking logic from context, and annunciates what it’s actually following.
Older systems aren’t always that smart and may have different modes for different sources, and may simply chase needle deflection without any awareness of what the GPS is doing. On these older systems, GPS Roll Steering (GPSS) can bridge the gap between old and new tech by sending GPS guidance in the form of heading commands that are followed in HDG mode. The details vary, so know what your installation actually does.
Remember, NAV modes often won’t capture unless you’re already close to the course. Garmin autopilots will capture NAV courses when the CDI is within half-scale deflection. Otherwise, they’ll simply arm the mode. That leaves you responsible for getting close enough to the course that it will capture.
Press APR Only When Appropriate
APR also arms approach vertical guidance.
On modern Garmin autopilots, the APR button is straightforward. Laterally, it does the same thing that NAV does, arming or capturing whatever navigation source is chosen. The difference is APR also arms approach vertical guidance. That’s for both approved vertical guidance, like an LPV glidepath or ILS glideslope, and advisory “+V” vertical guidance on other RNAV approaches.
That makes for a simple habit: Press APR when you’re cleared for the approach. That way, when the approach guidance eventually appears and centers, the autopilot will capture it. On the other hand, if ATC tells you only to “join the localizer,” you haven’t necessarily been cleared to descend on the approach, so you don’t want to follow vertical guidance. In that case, use NAV to capture the localizer, but don’t press APR until you’re actually cleared for the approach.
It’s also important to understand what APR does not do. It doesn’t load or activate the approach or do anything with the GPS. And it doesn’t follow non-approach VNAV guidance—that’s a whole other topic.
Older autopilots may use APR differently, so understand the logic in your airplane rather than assuming old patterns will transfer.
The other thing APR does not do on most autopilots is capture a preselected altitude. It’s up to you to discontinue the descent at DA, or go visual and continue for landing.
Know How and When to Turn it Off
Every autopilot user should know every way to disconnect it, not just the AP button on the yoke or controller. On typical installations this usually includes moving the electric trim and pulling the autopilot circuit breaker.
The disconnect switch often also interrupts the electric trim when pressed and held, which is crucially important in a trim runaway. The aircraft-specific AFM Supplement for your installation contains abnormal and emergency procedures like this that you should add to your checklist. It also contains regulatory limitations that are just as binding as those in your POH. For example, a Garmin GFC autopilot typically must be disengaged until 800 AGL in most situations. The exception is that they can be used until 200 AGL on approaches. GFC installations usually have airspeed limits, a fuel imbalance limit, and a requirement to operate from the left seat.
Autopilot procedures, avionics interactions, and specific buttons change from airplane to airplane—but the habits don’t. An autopilot isn’t merely a “bonus item.” It’s a tool that demands the right mindset from the pilot. Learn your system and establish a mindset to match. The right autopilot habits will lower your workload and allow you to pay more attention to the things that really matter.
Learn more about the course and try the free demo at Sportys.com.