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ILS Requirements

Asked by: 2038 views FAA Regulations, Flight Instructor, Instrument Rating, Weather

I fly in an aircraft that is certified to be flown multi piloted.  We have dual VORs, Tacans, and ILS, and have GPS that can be used as a backup to other NAV sources but not as the primary means of navigation.  Recently one of our planes Glide slope has stopped working on the right side  of the aircraft.  Effectively the pilot in the right seat cannot use their instruments to back up the Left Seat pilot for Glide slope  while executing an ILS.  The Left Seat instruments are fully operational.  My concern is that with no Glide slope back-up, the Right seat pilot cannot give adequate backup and there fore pilots flying this aircraft should not be executing any ILS.  Since this is an aircraft certified as multi-pilot I believe both pilots should have fully functioning instruments for any approach that is to be executed in the aircraft.  I believe a Localizer should be executed instead.  Thoughts?      

5 Answers



  1. Russ Roslewski on Oct 30, 2018

    Your mention of having a TACAN, and your name “Herky Pilot” leads me to believe this is a military aircraft, likely a C-130.

    I don’t mean to be unhelpful, but FAA regulations and guidance aren’t pertinent here – the military regulations can be and often are different, and are what would apply.

    Is there anything in the military regulations about this? Have you contacted your Standardization and Evaluation office? That would probably be a good start.

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  2. KDS on Oct 31, 2018

    I notice someone gave a thumbs-down to Russ’s answer and I’ve be most interested in what prompted that. Other than clicking on the wrong figure by accident, I don’t follow the logic as I felt Russ did a good job of giving a rational and accurate answer.

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  3. Russ Roslewski on Oct 31, 2018

    Thanks KDS, I noticed that myself and laughed…

    Because that really is the answer – none of the standard FAA rules on anything apply, because that’s a military regulation issue.

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  4. Herky Pilot on Nov 02, 2018

    Thanks for the feedback. I do not know why there is a thumbs down either. I understand the FAA regs don’t apply here but I guess I am more interested on what someone would do. We are not going against any regs by executing an ILS. My recommendation was to execute the Localizer and not the Glideslope seeing that the right seat pilot cannot give adequate backup. I know we have all the required equipment to execute the approach and the RS pilot could back up by looking cross cockpit but is it really the prudent thing to do in this situation. Especially if we are often shooting approaches here to mins. As a side not the way the glideslope was discovered inop was by pilots shooting an ILS and being “on” Glideslope the entire approach only to hit DA and already be over/slightly past the approach end of the runway….. Not a good feeling hen home field is surrounded by terrain on 3 sides. Luckily they were not at home field. Thanks again for the feedback.

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  5. MarkO on Nov 02, 2018

    I’d file a safety report with your recommendation. In the meantime, if you are going to continue to operate this way, I would develop more methods of cross-check. Cross cockpit observation may not be ideal at all angles, lighting conditions and distances. Perhaps more altitude/distance checks than normal along the final would be helpful (using GPS/IRS info).

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