Approach Plate Briefing

The ability to give a concise and comprehensive Approach Plate Briefing is an art. Styles vary between pilots and between companies, and they will certainly vary among your Instructors. With reference to the ILS 07 at Abbotsford Airport, here is an example:

“This is the ILS 07 at Abbotsford Airport. The tower frequency is 119.4. Navigation required: ILS frequency 109.7—tuned, identified, and set. Abbotsford NDB frequency 344—tuned, identified, test, and set. We are being vectored south of the airport and our final approach course is 066. Our safe altitude is 12800’ and our sector altitude is 10000’. There are no precautionary notes for this airport. The glideslope altitude crossing the NDB will be 1600’, the decision height will be 470’, and the airport elevation is 190’. Our back-up time for the decision height is 2 minutes 52 seconds at 90 KNOTS. In the event of a missed approach, we shall climb to 600’ on a track of 066°, producing a right climbing turn to a heading of 201° up to 3000’. At 3000’ we’ll make a right turn to the Abbotsford NDB for the hold. Approach Plate Briefing complete. Any questions?”

There is no set script, just as long as the “APB” is thorough and effective.