Let’s say you are flying into Innsbruck. How are you supposed to make your flightplan so that you can approach through the valley? Since you can not see the terrain on the map. Anyone have any answers?
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You must plan beforehand on the internet. In IF it’s not possible
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Use the published Approach Charts for Innsbruck
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If Im not using Simbrief or other softwares I will use Liveflight to best match the route and fixes. But the best way is to get out and fly some of the approaches and memorise them. Ive flown Innsbruck, Queenstown and others enough now that I can spot which valleys to go down and whether Im high or low. Flying manually through the mountains is more satisfying anyway!!
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Pass over LOIK. It’s in the valley.
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Hey there!
FPLtoIF.com is an awesome Flight Planner website based on Infinite Flight, made by one of our staff! Make sure use the “Simbrief” section, Register or log in into Simbrief and fill in the Information you need to the FPL. The Route Fix and NAV points should be generated automatically. You can try this into Innsbruck, and hopefully it will lead you over the mountains, not through them.
Hope this helps!
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This is how I’ve done it, in two steps:
- On a sepparate device, check out liveflightapp.com (or if you have live flight app) and find yourself there and the terrain path all the way to your dest. airport. Next you’re going to modify your fpltoif plans by taking notes on no.2 below.
I once was low on fuel at midnight over Java (A319) and was gliding down on iddle engine towards an alternate airport, when I got suspicious as I were seeing mountain tips against the black sky, checked myself with the above app and was shocked to find out that the southern parts of the island were riddled with thousand metre tall jagged rocks! Luckily managed to cancel and glide north to another safer airport.
- With all of the terrain imagined after checking out liveflightapp.com, now check your route in real life with flightradar24.com (or if you have its app) to see how it should be done. Don’t use past sessions, look for a current one.
Big chances you’ll be in luck like me to see a real life flight performed live before your very eyes! (And it feels good too, like watching some interesting movie or something because it concerns your intention). Afterall, pilots copy other pilots too, don’t they? (Through MCDU database, cmiiw).
i.e. The descend pattern to Bergamo (LIME) from the north, is quite crazy as pilots have to first overshoot their destination airport (because the mountains were in the way for a safe normal glide pattern), make a left turn to perform a U-pattern, all while descending then home in to its target runway!
So that’s how I did it: waiting for, finding and copying a real life event that just occured, really can’t beat that feeling! Checking out the map on liveflightapp first also helps you grasps what is going on even more for “the movie” I mentioned above. It was crazy fun and hope that helps. Cheers!
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Yeah, I almost crashed into a mountain while approaching on the ILS of Addis Abeba.
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At least what I do is that I fly manually to not crash into the mountain, actually I do all my landings by hand, and even if you have a flight plan there is no need to follow it all the time, you can “override” the system anytime you want
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If you are going to be approaching airports in mountainous regions and or high elevations always thoroughly study the various approaches established for the specific runways from the airport approach charts. Select an approach and make sure you know how to execute it by sticking to the IAS and altitude restrictions for each part of the approach as described in the approach chart. Take your time to thoroughly brief yourself for your flight. Also study missed approach instructions for the approach you have chosen especially if its your first time landing there. Also the approach chart will give you detailed rendering of the topography in that area. Happy flying! :)
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You have to fly VFR…
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I’m am unfortunately not a professional pilot so reading these is like reading a foreign language to me
It a problem! See this tutorial for how to read them!
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