How to approach in VFR?

Hi,

The best way [I have found] to get your none Papi lights approach and landing right is this: First practice and become proficient at landing your aircraft of choice using a glideslope.

First find a handy [and quiet] airport that provides a glideslope for landing. Then practice manual landings by following the glideslope, manually, all the way down to the flare and touchdown.

The best way [I have found] to do this is to approach your ‘practice’ airport from far enough away such that as you intercept the glideslope:

a. Your speed is already at the correct approach speed for the aircraft you are flying. b. Your flaps, lights, cowls etc are all already configured for landing re the aircraft you are flying. c. You are 1700 ft above the height of the runway [not sea level, the runway you intend to land at].

So then, with all the above set up, as you intercept the glideslope turn off your auto pilot, throttle back [not all the way - in my Mooney I throttle back to about 700 RPM] and push the nose down so that you are now following the glideslope down. Now you should trim up the aircraft such that it is, more or less, following the glideslope with no input on the controls from you [of course you will still have to correct for the wind]. At this point, if necessary you should make small adjustments to the throttle so that your descent rate stays at exactly 500 ft per minute [remember small throttle changes are the order of the day here, plus the time needed for them to take effect].

The point of all the above is that you will find that a glideslope intersection at 1700 ft above the height of the airfield with a subsequent descent speed of 500 ft per minute will nicely follow the glideslope all the way down to the flare.

So, back to your original question: “the none Papi approach”. well, using your newly honed landing skills just try to treat the approach and landing as using an imaginary glideslope. Thus, approach at 1700 ft and let your ‘minds eye’ guide you as to what the airport should look like at the [now imaginary] glideslope interception point [around 5 miles out ] and then follow that baby down at 500 ft per minute to [with practice] a perfect touchdown.

A few further thoughts: In real life [and to emulate real life pilotage in a simulator], pilots should NOT approach from too high, too close. It increases risk because everything has to be hurried and it is difficult, if not impossible, to lose enough speed to actually land. Conversely [and you will see this a lot in MSFS] , pilots should NOT approach from too low, too far out. The risk then is that [aside from the increased risk of collision] an engine failure will almost certainly result in crashing SHORT of the runway.

The result of practice is that the same good techniques should be employed in the same measured manner to build up a consistency that results in every landing being the same as the last one and the next one! And with such a baseline you can then make meaningful personal assessments such as: ‘That was a great landing’ or ‘a good landing given the conditions’ or perhaps ‘not so good must do better’.

I hope that at least some of the above is of help.