ATC 8 mile final question

ATC
1

Hi everyone,

I have a question, when ATC says eg: maintain 180 knots till 8 mile final, how am I supposed to know what the 8 mile final and how can I find out where it is?

Thank you

1 Like
2

There are several ways to know your distance to an airport:

  1. If an airport has an ILS and you’re tuned in NAV1 on the bottom of the HUD, you will see a distance countdown.
  2. If and aiport has a VOR/NDB the same process applies.
  3. With your FPL, from the status bar, you can see the “Dist. to Dest.” which will give you your distance to your last waypoint (preferably the airport)
  4. With the status bar, using the “Nearest” setting you’ll have the distance to the nearest airport.

There could be other ways, if anyone has ideas.

3 Likes
3

Only other thing I can think of is is that this will also be shown on an instryment in the live cockpit if the A/C has one

4

The airport icao code and nm will be visible up to 26.9nm provided you have set this up in settings.
So if you are approaching an airport on final you will easily see how far away before touchdown.
Usually the controller will issue that command when you are either turning base or on final. If ATC request you need to maintain 180kts until 8nm from touchdown, follow the instructions and once you gone past <8nm, then at this point you are able to reduce speed further as you deemed appropriate down to final approach speed.
This is due to the need of appropriate spacing needed to land safely in sequence.

5

The end of ILS cone or any approach cone is 11nm away from the threshold of the runway. So 6nm is about half of that cone and you can eyeball it. The approach speeds are 180 until 6, 170 until 5, or 160 until 4. I think estimating the distance is fine in most cases.

6

I think you should be good if you take it as “keep your speed up” in line with, as indicated, until needing to transition to lower speed for landing configuration.

7

Difference in approach phases and aircraft types determines appropriate approach speeds as is also determined by the air space avaliable. A 747 on downwind leg may require a relatively lower speed than say 737 on the same phase. And who is trailing who you know. So where as ATC may not have adequate spacing calling out speeds depends on a lof of things, this being just a tiny bit…