ILS Approaches and Air Speed Control
Posted by Jeffrey on 27th October 2009
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The other day we were flying into Los Angeles, LAX, airport. It was hazy and visibility was probably five miles and overcast. We were coming in on the SADDE 6 arrival from the north, we were on the downwind leg and approach control asked us to keep our speed up since there was a “heavy” on the straight-in approach to ILS 24R as well. It was the first officer’s leg.
Usually this kind of set-up doesn’t pose a problem. If you get a good intercept angle on the ILS, no more than a 45°, your speed is on target, and the winds are close to being down the runway, you can keep your speed up and accommodate the controller’s request with no problem. Today though we had a right quarterly tailwind and things were going to get worse before they got better.
So we are on the base leg and approach gives us a heading, tells us we are cleared for the approach, and instructs us to call tower.
The autopilot is on and what happens, we blow through the localizer. Our ground speed was too fast for the autopilot to pick up the localizer and track it inbound. Luckily we were far enough out that it wasn’t an issue and there was no conflict with any other traffic in the area. The first officer made the necessary corrections to get us aligned with the localizer to continue a normal approach and we landed safely.
Tags: Airspeed, Flying, ILS Approaches, Instrument Approaches, Pilotage
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