Blog Elements : IFR Focus

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Mastering Approach Lighting Systems: Insights and Scenarios for Instrument Pilots

June 27, 2025/by Eric Radtke

Approach light systems are a configuration of signal lights starting at the landing threshold and extending into the approach area, at a distance of 2,400 to 3,000 feet for precision instrument runways, and 1,400 to 1,500 feet for non-precision instrument runways. Some systems include sequenced flashing lights which appear to the pilot as a ball of light traveling towards the runway at high speed—nicknamed the rabbit.

Keeping One Step Ahead of ATC when flying IFR

June 24, 2025/by Bret Koebbe

The two most useful benefits have been ADS-B datalink weather and a real-time traffic display in the cockpit, delivered by the network of ADS-B ground stations in the U.S. These free services are available to pilots of all aircraft types (even drones) thanks to the widespread availability of inexpensive, portable ADS-B receivers and rapid developments in mobile app and panel-mount avionics technology.

Mastering Approach Lighting Systems: Insights and Scenarios for Instrument Pilots

June 27, 2025/by Eric Radtke

Keeping One Step Ahead of ATC when flying IFR

June 24, 2025/by Bret Koebbe

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Mastering Approach Lighting Systems: Insights and Scenarios for Instrument Pilots

June 27, 2025/by Eric Radtke

You’ve probably seen runway approach lights at larger airports many times during your training and when flying at night. These systems take on additional importance when flying IFR since they provide the basic means to transition from instrument to visual flight for landing.

If an approach lighting system is available for a runway, the symbology will be displayed in both the small airport diagram in line with the runway, and in the briefing strip towards the top of the instrument approach chart. You can then refer to the legend in the digital terminal procedures supplement to determine the specifics of the lighting system.

Approach light systems deserve special attention twice during each flight. First is during your preflight preparation, when you can determine which system you’ll see for a particular runway. Here’s the ILS Runway 29R approach at Torrance, California. Notice the A-5 found in the briefing strip on the approach chart.

Now look in the supplement to find that A-5 represents a medium intensity approach lighting system, or M-A-L-S-R, with runway alignment indicator lights. The inverted dark coloring of the A5 symbol means the approach lights are pilot-controlled.

Approach lighting systems are critical during low ceiling and low visibility conditions when you must decide whether to continue to land or execute a missed approach. If when reaching the minimum descent altitude or decision altitude on the approach and you have the approach lights in sight, you are permitted to descend to 100 feet above the touchdown zone elevation published for the runway. When reaching 100 feet above the touchdown zone, you then must have the runway environment in sight (as specified in § 91.175) and verify the flight visibility is above the published minimums to continue the descent to landing.

If a NOTAM indicates part of the lighting system is out of service, refer to the inoperative components table to make adjustments to the landing minimums. Make it a point to check your destination against the inoperative components table each time you fly IFR to see if the airport has any lighting systems affected.

Remember, these approach lighting systems are an important part of your IFR training. When you arrive at an unfamiliar airport with reduced visibility, let your preflight preparation and knowledge of the various systems lead to quick orientation to the runway.

Now let’s take a look at the approach lighting systems you are likely to encounter and see what they may look like in a variety of weather conditions.

Approach Light Systems Simulator

Approach Lighting Systems Scenarios

Keeping One Step Ahead of ATC when flying IFR

June 24, 2025/by Bret Koebbe

There is a lot more to gain from these NextGen services than just being able to see the location of thunderstorm cells on your iPad in flight, or noting the location of an airliner passing 10 miles in front of you. When used strategically you can use this information to gain additional insight into what’s going on in the airspace around you and make more informed decisions on each flight, giving you an edge when dealing with air traffic control.

Until recently we had no other choice but to rely on ATC and Flight Service as the primary source of information. How is the weather developing? Call the controller or a flight service specialist. Where is the traffic? Wait for ATC to inform you of a potential conflict. What is the best IFR route and which approach can I expect? ATC will tell you when it’s convenient for them.

These challenges and unknowns have always been a part of flying IFR, but with NextGen that’s starting to change. This new technology has eliminated many of these unknowns, providing pilots with the information needed to make more-informed decisions during every phase of flight, from preflight to shutdown.

Let’s start with the IFR route selection process. Gone are the days of making an educated guess on a route, only to have ATC respond with a full route clearance with intersections and airways. It now takes only a moment in ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot or FltPlan.com to enter a departure and destination airport and then see recently issued clearances to other aircraft flying the same route. They’re even sorted by altitude so you can find the option that best matches the performance of your airplane. File one of these routes and you’re almost guaranteed a “cleared as filed” from clearance delivery.

On that same topic, the need to “call” clearance delivery is no longer a requirement at all airports. Both ForeFlight and FltPlan.com offer GA pilots convenient access to the Pre-Departure Clearance system that the airlines have been using for years. After enrolling in this service, and when departing from one of over 70 approved airports in the U.S., your IFR clearance will be sent via email and text message 30 minutes before departure.

Currently, this works at airports served by airlines in busy Class B and C airspace where you’re also most likely to receive a complex IFR clearance. The textual clearance also includes a digital transcription of the current ATIS. With routine these tasks out of the way before you step foot in the airplane, you can devote 100% of your attention to programming the GPS and preparing for taxi instead of studying IFR charts and departure procedures searching for obscure waypoints and other gotchas.

After takeoff, you can use the datalink weather component of NextGen to stay ahead of ATC when flying near convective weather. Prior to ADS-B, you had to rely on the advice of ATC, Flight Watch and Flight Service to guide you around the storms and hold on tight if the ride got rough. Now you can easily identify thunderstorms, icing or turbulence threats hundreds of miles away and request to modify your route accordingly. The controllers prefer you handle weather avoidance in this manner as well with a predetermined route, as opposed to flying up to the weather and then making multiple heading requests.

On longer flights, the best time to start planning for the arrival and approach is when things are quiet during cruise and while several hundred miles from the destination. The problem is you may not be able to receive the ATIS at this range, so there’s no way to confirm which runway or instrument approach is in use to begin preparing for the approach. Don’t give up there – all it takes is a little detective work with the traffic layer in your mobile app to determine the active runway.

First, make sure you have an unrestricted or unfiltered traffic layer enabled on the moving map, zoom into the destination airport, and turn on the extended centerlines feature. Now keep an eye out for traffic approaching and descending towards the airport and you’ll be able to see which runway is in use. I used this trick when flying into Nashville recently and was able to determine they were using the ILS or RNAV Runway 20L approach and using runway 20C for departures. All of this was observed by tracking another airplane’s final approach course on the map while I was still 250 miles southeast of the airport.

You can use the nearby traffic depiction to expedite the issuance of a visual approach clearance too when flying into a busy towered airport. When the weather is VFR, it’s not uncommon to be vectored into a sequence behind multiple aircraft. The inefficiency occurs as ATC has to build in extra spacing between each airplane to ensure adequate separation, leading to time-consuming vectors. But here’s where your NextGen tools can help. After visually locating the airport, begin developing a mental picture of the preceding aircraft and try to find their location on the traffic display on your iPad. This should make it much easier to spot them visually, at which point you can let ATC know you have both airport and traffic in front and sight. If they’re on top of things, the controller can now clear you for the visual approach sooner since you have the airplane you’re following in sight.

This is just the beginning of what NextGen has to offer to make our flights more efficient and interactions with ATC more meaningful. The next 10 years will be even more exciting, as internet connectivity reaches the GA cockpit and ATC communications transition to digital messages. I’m personally looking forward to retiring the phrase “say again” and forgetting how to adjust squelch on analog radios.

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Mastering Approach Lighting Systems: Insights and Scenarios for Instrument Pilots

Keeping One Step Ahead of ATC when flying IFR

Mastering Approach Lighting Systems: Insights and Scenarios for Instrument Pilots

Keeping One Step Ahead of ATC when flying IFR

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Mastering Approach Lighting Systems: Insights and Scenarios for Instrument Pilots

Approach Light Systems Simulator

Approach Lighting Systems Scenarios

Keeping One Step Ahead of ATC when flying IFR

Email Subscription

Recent Articles