Approach questions

[McCrash 3]

How far away from the airport would the pilot start the descent?How far away from the runway would the pilot have the aircraft lined up and have the descent trajectory correct; hence being ready to capture the G/S and possibly use Autoland?Waldo

[Mats_J 2]

Waldo,A short answer to your question number one would be; use the 3:1 rule. Descent 1000 feet per 3 nautical miles. If you are at FL370 and are landing on a runway at sea level that would mean you should start to descent at 3x37 i.e. 111 nm out.As for your second question I would say for an ILS landing you are lined up with the runway at (tyopically) 10 nm at (typically) 2500 or 3000 ft for intercept with the glideslope. The important thing here is to be well below the glide slope when lining up. Capturing the glide slope from above has never been a great hit! ;-)Please fill me in or correct me,

[Guest Nickman]

Also remember to enter the approach heights (from your approach plate) into the LEGS page, it'll help you capture the G/S more easily.Also try to hold altitude until you catch the glideslope. Say that the G/S comes active at 5000 ft, you can try to hold at 5,000 when descending to help capture the G/S more easily.Nick B.Continental Airlines Virtual 737NG Pilothttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/800driver.jpg--AMD Athlon XP 3200+ @ 2.2 Ghz (Equal to 2.8 ghz)400W Power supply3x 80 mm Case FansSoyo VIA KT600 Dragon PlusnVidia GeForce FX 5200 128 mb2 x 512 PC400100 GB Western DigitalMicrosoft Sidewinder Precision 2