Alpha and all that...

[Yeti42]

Hi everyone...

I was just wondering how people were finding flying FA 18 approaches using the Alpha indicator. It's rather a new thing for me as I'm used to basing approaches on airspeed Vref. It's taking me a while to get the hang of looking at the "E" indicator in the HUD and not looking at the airspeed. The concept is obvious and is how most fast jet pilots are trained but it's totally different than small AC GA flying. I remember asking a Tornado pilot what the approach speeds where for Tornado's and his reply was "We just look at Alpha, don't pay much attention to airspeed"

[Kenan]

Using E-Bracket in combination with FPM is quite intuitive. It's true indeed, that if these two are properly aligned, you don't really need to look at your airspeed at all.

 

 

That's what they're, in the end, meant to do: make it easier for the pilot to fly/land. :)