Since the creation of aviation, there have always been flights where the weather is adverse for pilots, and that is why methods were sought to fly safely; many problems and accidents occurred before having all the instruments and flight procedures to fly safely from one place to another regardless of the atmospheric problems that arise during this. One of the most important moments or situations during the flight is the approach. It is very dangerous, and we must follow certain steps to reach the ground safely.
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The importance of the approach
The approach is one of the most important flight phases in instrument flights, it includes several maneuvers and procedures that must be carried out correctly to locate the aircraft in a specific position, which will allow it to land safely. Different airports of the world design and evaluate each approach procedure so that all pilots use it at the time of publication.
Nowadays, there are several types of approaches to carry out during an instrumental approach. Each of them has different degrees of complexity and can vary depending on the instruments used, besides the precision of each one to land safely. Approaches can be precision or non-precision, which will be described in aeronautical charts, and within them are presented all the procedures that the pilots must follow for their correct execution.
Aeronautical Charts
It is a representation of a portion of the earth around the airport that contains all the necessary data to take off, fly over, or land at an airport; these data are the minimum flight heights according to the different sectors, the established routes where the aircraft must fly over, the holding points, the different frequency data to communicate with the controllers in the area, as well as the frequencies of the radio aids that are necessary to maintain the courses that will allow the aircraft to maintain minimum separation with any obstacle that may affect the flight.
Ways of using aeronautical approach charts
Constantly before the moment of descent, it is established to read the approach and landing charts; because even if the pilots know the route, they should always reinforce their knowledge and prevent them from skipping any step that may cause any complications during the approach or landing; it is for all this that, in commercial flights, it is established that there is a pilot who flies and another who is the monitor, who is the person who will read each letter in steps and verify that all the frequencies they will use have been adjusted.
At the time of reading, you always start at the top and always read the name and date of the letter you have, and while that is being done, the pilot who flies must have a letter at hand and check that what is read is in short, the necessary letter for the different phases of flight that is required.
That is why pilots never leave any flight to chance; they always plan from the ground so as not to neglect any step and always set the minimum heights and data that will help to know the location or give alerts so that the pilot never neglects his flight; the approach is one of the critical phases of the flight and where major accidents occur called Controlled flight to the ground or CFIT in its acronym in English, for which it is necessary that you never have excess confidence, communication problems between pilots or just follow all the steps to the control tower.
What do you think of this topic? Do you think the approach is one of the most important phases of flight?
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