What altitude to vector aircraft on approach?

ATC
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When controlling an approach frequency, how do you know what altitudes to vector aircraft on approach?

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you only give an altitude to separate the aircraft i think not necesary to give him a altitude otherly, the approach altitude is set by the VNAV if the pilot has done his FPL correctly.

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When vectoring someone, it just takes practice, most IFATC controllers will do 4,000 AAL on base and then 3,000 when we intercept

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You should be familiar with the area that you have to control, like checking the chart of the airport or asking your supervisor, watching another controller, and if you want to know what the highest point On the terrain Check it out here.

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Hello, @Coolpilot360

There are several factors that go into deciding what altitude to assign a aircraft, below are some considerations you should take before assigning altitude assignments to aircraft:

  • What kind of terrain is surrounding your airport? What is the MSA in certain areas?: You can use one of rolling two sources to help you answer these questions. One, use the drag and vector feature to find out the highest terrain at that particular point, more about this HERE. Or two, go to IFATC.ORG and under the “MAP” tab type in the airport of your choosing in order to find the MSA around the vicinity of your airport (please note that no airports are depicted in the website).
  • What is the GS altitude in certain areas within the cone?: Depending on where within the cone you plan on vectoring an aircraft in, you want to know how high or low they will be from the GS. For example let’s say you are controlling an airport that has an elevation of 10ft and you plan on vectoring a VIS/RV approach aircraft mid-cone, then the most appropriate altitude would be around 1.5K-2K ft since 3K would be too high for a mid-cone approach and 1K would be to low and result in a bust. Do note that the cone stretches out 11NM and has increments of 300 ft per 1NM, for an ILS approach at the end of the cone, the clearance should be 3K, more about this HERE.
  • What if an aircraft has a field FPL w/ a STAR/SID?: For the most part aircraft who have a filed star/FPL will be kept alone but there are some instances in which stars leave aircraft to be too high on downwind and on base, some examples include OMDB and EDDF. In these cases you will want to determine your pattern altitudes and command aircraft to descend ealy on so they are not so high when in the pattern. It is recommended to keep your base and downwind pattern altitudes at least 1K ft apart. If an aircraft is to be taken off their FPL because they are too high, you must give them an altitude assignment so they know when to stop descending. When working a departure frequency, altitudes are mainly used to deconflict parallel departures from busting or departing aircraft from aircraft on downind, which again you will have to decide on what altitudes you will use within your pattern.

These are just a few things to consider when assigning altitudes, I recommend watching IFATC live on youtube since it is where you will find some of the most experienced controllers controlling and most certainly review the radar portion of the ATC user guide. Nonetheless I hope this helped clear up some of your concerns - KevinA.

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Thanks alot for all your information!

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Great answer,
Tried something different into Brisbane Australia and I was way to high for a stable approach and initiated a missed approach at 1000’ AGL. Brought it back around and landed without issue. My problem was I couldn’t get the ship to slow down enough. Would of been nice is Brisbane approach and tower were active at the time. Initial approach was perfect on flight path, just speed was the issue which caused me to be too high at reaching 1000’.

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