IFR briefings in jets

Flying faster airplanes means more planning considerations in your arrival and approach plan to stay ahead of the airplane. Many of the techniques for GA briefings still apply, like checking waypoints and finding Easter eggs. Others take on more importance, like non-standard gradients and VGI/GP mismatches. Here are some things to look for when planning arrivals and approaches in jets:
  1. Profile: the 3:1 rule is pretty good for this. Plan 3 miles for every thousand to lose, or 300 feet for every mile.
  2. Slowdown and configuration plan: if you come into the terminal environment at 250 KIAS and have a ref speed around 120-150, you’ll need a plan to bleed that speed several miles out. One of my IOE Captains teaches new hires a technique of picking a fix on the arrival or approach for each configuration and annotating the chart to make sure you have a plan that’s easy to follow.
  3. Density effects: if you’re going someplace hot and high, it will take you considerably more distance to slow down. For starters, your TAS will be 1.5% faster for every 10 degrees or 1,000 feet at a given IAS, your kinetic energy will scale as the square of that difference (~3% per 10/1000) and you’ll have less drag available, so you’ll want to be considerably more conservative with your setup.
  4. Airspace and speed limits: are you flying into an airport near a larger Class B? Figure out where the shelves are and plan to be 200 or slower to comply with 91.117(c). I like to put hard limits on relevant fixes in the FMS to avoid overlooking this if ATC gives us “best speed on the approach” on arrivals into places like KSNA or KSJC. If ATC gives you a tight downwind on a visual in a Class C, make sure you’re at or below 200 to comply with 91.117(b).
  5. Distance from FAF>Runway: if your aircraft slows down between the FAF and a 1,000 foot AGL stability gate, anything less than the typical 1500-foot/5 nm FAF might lead to surprises. Mark that on your chart and plan to configure earlier.
  6. Speed differences: our E175 sometimes goes 120 on final, which can lead to spacing issues if the MD-11 behind you needs 165. If your Vref is below 125 at a busy Class B in an airplane that normally does 130-140, plan an early exit and consider telling the approach controller “Airline 123 will need 120 inside 5 miles” so that they can give any faster traffic behind you a bit of buffer so they don’t run you down on final.

Example 1: RNAV Y 29 into KRDM

Let’s look at taking an E175 down the RNAV Y 29 into KRDM on a summer day with 30-degree temps. There are a couple things on the chart that are worth paying close attention to:
  1. Gradient: at 3.76, it’s pretty steep, so we’ll have a hard time slowing down on final, especially on a warm day. It’s probably a good idea to have your gear down well outside the FAF to ensure you’ve got enough drag to slow down to ref speed. From AWBAN to TISTE we need to lose 1200 feet over 6 miles, which is about a 2-degree gradient. Planning Flaps 2 around AWBAN should safely help us slow down. Working backwards, F1/210 should be a few miles prior.
  2. The airport is at 3,000 feet, and 30 degrees (ISA+21). That means we have 4.5%+2%=6.5% faster TAS. If ref speed at Flaps 5 is 135 KIAS, then TAS will be about 144 KIAS. On the 3.76-degree GPA, that gives us a descent rate of about 973 FPM. That’s probably why the Cat D is not allowed, because they would be >1000 FPM and our eyes struggle to deal with closure rates that high (IPH 4-37). In this situation it’s a safer bet to plan Flaps Full to slow the approach speeds and closure rates. The higher TAS also means more brake energy, in our case about 13% (energy scales as the square of speed), so coming in slower on a short runway will make us less likely to cook the brakes. Planning full reverse will help on that front as well.
  3. PAPI/GP mismatch: the GPA on the approach is 3.76 with a TCH of 43 and the PAPIs are 3.0/50. It may be tempting to duck below the VNAV GPA to get on the PAPIs, but that will almost certainly take you well beyond 1000 FPM and require two pretty substantial profile changes to accomplish to duck and then stabilize on the shallower path. Even if your SOP doesn’t outright ban that, it still introduces risk. Under most circumstances, your best bet is to keep stable on the VNAV profile and then gradually move your visual aimpoint up to the middle of stripe 4 (slightly closer than normal to account for the steeper gradient). Add a half second to your flare to account for the quicker closure rate, and you should be pretty good.

Example 2: BRIXX 4 STAR into RNAV Z 30L at KSJC

Coming into San Jose from the north, you often get assigned the BRIXX 4, then you get a variety of choices for the approach. If you want to save time, the RNAV Z 30L from JILNA gets you a pretty tight turn off the STAR towards the runway. The only problem is that the approach chart itself doesn’t tell you one important thing: you’ll be underneath the Bravo shelf for a chunk of it. That “Max 210” note might lull you into keeping your defaults (210 in the E175) and busting the 200-knot limit. If you overlay the BRIXX and RNAV 30L Z waypoints on the VFR sectional in ForeFlight, you see that the segment from JILNA to YADUT takes you below the 6000-foot shelf, meaning you need to slow to ≤200 KIAS by the time you get there. A good mitigation strategy is to put 200 in your clean approach speeds and 200 as a hard speed limit on JILNA and YADUT when you set up the box.
Three other things to note on that chart:
  1. The VGI is 16 feet higher than the VNAV path at 70 feet. If you transition from the VNAV path to stripe 4 (TCH 50), you'll see three reds on short final. If you go up to the PAPIs, you'll chew up 400 extra feet of runway.
  2. The beginning of the approach calls for RNP .3, which some aircraft don't do that far out by default. On the E175, you can change that in the box by going to PROG Page 3 and finding RNP, then adjusting it.
  3. The missed approach is also under the Bravo shelf. If your airplane defaults to 210 KIAS on the PERF>GA LIM, change that to 200 as well to save yourself some heartache (I almost always do that unless there's a compelling reason to have 210, like low-density or special procedures).
If you enjoy ForeFlight but your workplace uses other apps that are less user friendly, you can either adapt this technique to that app if it's straightforward, or scope out common arrivals in ForeFlight before you get to work so that you know about the Easter eggs.

learning as you go

As your techniques develop, you'll find what works for you and what doesn't. If there's a specific thing you struggle with, write that on your charts as a reminder. A good debrief after every flight should include not just what went well and what didn't, but your ideas for how to change it for next time to keep improving.