20/7/2017 When Can You Go Below Minimums On An Instrument Approach?

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When Can You Go Below Minimums On An Instrument

Approach?
By Colin Cutler | 09/10/2016

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How low can you go? When it comes to instrument approaches, you can go all the way
down to the published minimums, without seeing a thing.

But what do you need to go below minimums and land?

FAR 91.175(c) outlines three requirements:

You must always be able to make a descent to landing on the intended runway using
normal maneuvers and a normal descent rate,

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20/7/2017 When Can You Go Below Minimums On An Instrument Approach? | Boldmethod

The flight visibility (that you observe) must meet or exceed the minimums published
for the approach, and
You must be able to distinctly identify one of the approved visual references for the
runway (often called the "runway environment")

First Off, What Do You Need To See On Your Approach?

You can group runway visual references into two groups:
1) The ones that let you descend down to 100' above the touchdown zone elevation
(TDZE).
2) The ones that let you land.

Here are some examples.

What Gets You To 100' Above The Touchdown Zone?

If you can see the white approach light system and nothing else, you can descend down to
100' above touchdown zone elevation, regardless of the type of approach you're flying (even
if it's a non-precision approach). But at the 100' point, you need other visual references to
descend lower. Here are some examples of approach light systems that get you down to
100' above the touchdown zone.

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What Gets You Down To Land?

So what gets your wheels down on the pavement? If you see any of these references, you
can descend down to the runway and land:

The approach light systems's red terminating bars or red side row bars (used on ALSF-1
and ALSF-2 systems)
The runway threshold
The threshold lights
The runway end identifier lights (they're the flashing strobes on the corners of the
runway's approach threshold)
The visual approach slope indicator (this includes both VASIs and PAPIs)

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The touchdown zone or touchdown zone markings

The touchdown zone lights
The runway or runway markings
The runway lights

That's a bit of a mouth full, so here's a picture to better explain:

How Do You Know What To Look For?

Your approach chart shows the lights you'll see in two places. The top of the chart shows
the type of approach lighting system for the approach runway. In this case, KTKI has a
MALSR on Runway 18.

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20/7/2017 When Can You Go Below Minimums On An Instrument Approach? | Boldmethod

The airport diagram also shows the type of approach light system in place for the runways,
as well as the type of runway lighting. Runway 18 has high-intensity runway lights (HIRL).

Get Some Practice

Whether you're an instrument rated pilot or not, you can get some practical experience
recognizing runway lights. At an uncontrolled airport, use CTAF to turn on the lights. Tower
controlled airports rarely turn on the lights during the day in visual conditions (VMC). But, if
you ask tower to turn the lights on, they're usually happy to do so. And, the more you see
the lights, the easier it is to pick them out of the soup when you're down to minimums.

Become a better pilot.

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