3/9/2024 0 Comments Localizer vs vor approachUnlike VORs though, an ILS actually uses two signals: a VHF signal (which means anywhere between 30 to 300 MHz) for the localizer, and for the glideslope, an automatically paired and dedicated UHF frequency. Another piece of information provided by the various components of an ILS is distance remaining to the runway, as well as target altitudes at certain points along your approach path. The vertical thickness of an ILS glideslope is but 1.4 degree, top to bottom, and the width of its horizontal component, the localizer, can be as little as three, up to about six degrees.) The runways having an ILS also must have certain unique and easily identified approach light configurations. (When I say very accurate, I should quantify that. (Of course, the PAR or precision approach radar that I wrote about last year also qualifies as a precision approach, but I’ll concentrate on the ILS here.) So what is it that makes an ILS so special?Īn ILS of course provides very accurate vertical as well as lateral guidance to the extended centerline of what are always relatively long, wide, specifically well-marked, well-lit, and well-maintained runways. Until there are many more GPS WAAS approaches besides the few now coming online, for a while yet at least, the odds are that if you have to get down through a layer of low clouds, the bases of which might be as low as 200 feet, you’ll be flying an ILS. Given a choice between the somewhat more relaxed progression of a non-precision descent profile and the relatively more rapid cross-checking required to remain within the allotted confines of a precision approach path, when the chips (and the ceilings) are down, the precision approach is definitely the better of the two. Most pilots with instrument ratings would probably agree that when it comes to an uneventful passage through haze, gloom, or dark of night and back to Mother Earth, an ILS is a much better deal than a VOR approach.
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