IAP Brief

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kage

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Kage
studying for IFR. Saw a thread from years ago, posted by dtuuri, regarding “ditty” he uses for IAP setup/brief. Anyone know it?
Thanks in advance.
 
There's no need to learn any fancy mnemonics or memory tricks. Read the approach chart like a book, left to right, top to bottom, and do the things as you come across them - such as tuning the radio, getting AWOS, setting approach course, etc. It's all there once you learn how to read it.
 
RussR said:
There's no need to learn any fancy mnemonics or memory tricks. Read the approach chart like a book, left to right, top to bottom, and do the things as you come across them - such as tuning the radio, getting AWOS, setting approach course, etc. It's all there once you learn how to read it.
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This. And don't bypass the Plan View. That's all about situational awareness.
 
RussR said:
There's no need to learn any fancy mnemonics or memory tricks. Read the approach chart like a book, left to right, top to bottom, and do the things as you come across them - such as tuning the radio, getting AWOS, setting approach course, etc. It's all there once you learn how to read it.
Click to expand...
I agree.

I would add to that statement that to really make the briefing useful, don't just read the information - use it:
- Verify that you have tuned frequencies correctly, loaded the GPS accurately, set the minimums altering function correctly, etc.
- Point out the expected path and altitude changes for your flight (the chart usually has many options, only one of which applies to you)
- Articulate how you plan to use different autopilot modes during different phases of the approach

A good briefing contains a play-by-play of what you expect between the briefing and the conclusion of the flight. It's a great way to have your mind armed with the right kind of information to make everything work, and to recognize ahead of time if anything is unclear.

This works best if you follow the sequence "set up - brief - execute". That way the briefing can also serve as validation of your setup.

- Martin
 
kage said:
studying for IFR. Saw a thread from years ago, posted by dtuuri, regarding “ditty” he uses for IAP setup/brief. Anyone know it?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
I think you are trying to find a quick mnemonic to brief approaches rapid fire back to back in a training environment. While this makes efficient use of time, it isn’t the best way to train correct briefing. In a real environment you’ll have plenty of time to get setup. And if you’re thrown a last minute change, can ask for delay vectors to make sure you’re completely briefed and setup. I know some will claim the rapid fire setup in training makes you better if something happens later on, but I believe in first principles- you’ll always default back to what you learned first in stressful situations so why not learn it correctly the first time.
 
My favorite briefing mnemonic was my CFII's: WIRE.

Weather - you've been watching the weather the whole flight and listening to AWOS or ATIS for at least the last 30+ miles, right?​
Instruments - really? You've been flying for 2 hours and this is the first time you're checking?​
Radios - you've been handed off from facility to facility. Did you need to have a reminder for your VFR cross countries too? Oh yeah, NAV radios... if you need a reminder that you will need to tune in the ILS frequency to fly an ILS, you have issues a mnemonic won't help.​
Everything else - extremely useful.​

I took it as a valuable lesson in how ridiculous mnemonic briefings are.
 
kage said:
studying for IFR. Saw a thread from years ago, posted by dtuuri, regarding “ditty” he uses for IAP setup/brief. Anyone know it?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
As you can see, the newbies like the briefing strip. They probably prefer the ABC-style keyboards over QWERTY, too, I suppose. The fact is, if you're a competent pilot, no matter where the latest group of smart people think they should hide the most important information for everybody else to find — you will come up with a way to locate and use it. Until the next group changes it again, that is (see: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/fli...ification_of_Airport_Sketch_Final_Bearing.pdf.)

Here's a link to one of the studies that led to the "briefing strip": https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA298130.pdf

The ditty you asked about reminds me to check for certain potential traps, not merely to learn a certain value. As such, the briefing strip made no difference to how I used to set up and fly an approach than before they conjured the thing up. Except it took longer to find the information in the strips than I was used to and I didn't appreciate being effed with like that. :) Also, I only published the first verse, there's another I added as time went by and my twice per year recurrent simulator sessions at FSI revealed even more potential traps when "flying" with a diabolical FSI instructor.

Whatever you choose to adopt (and it really doesn't matter as long as it works for you), please look for the known traps the memory aid is reminding you to look for. The example in the tutorial I linked to (may be down now as I've found a new webmaster who is working on updating my site) was "course". Yes, the value is noteworthy, but the thing is — you want to see if it changes direction at the FAF! Does the "briefing strip" help you think about that possibility or does my "ditty" do a better job of that? Or does, say, your own copy-written original mnemonic or poem work best of all? Whichever it is — use that.
 
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