Photon

I was having a discussion the other day with another pilot friend of mine, and also some other flight instructors.

Seems to be a divided community as to the two major ways of flying the glide slope.

What do you guys do, and what kind of airplane do you do this with?

- Use power to maintain the glideslope

- Use pitch to maintain the glideslope
?

Discuss!

NightIP

In reality it's a little bit of both, but if I see the glideslope moving away from the center I'll primarily use pitch to capture it again. Speed is controlled primarily with power.

Thedude

Pitch+Power=Performance

chignutsak

Pitch to capture glideslope. Power to adjust airspeed. SMALL corrections on both.

Airhoss

Both,

If you change your pitch your must change your power to maintain your desired airspeed. If you change power you are going to have to change pitch for the same. These two are solidly interrelated.

When I teach people to fly an ILS I teach them to fly a decent rate and a heading. Whatever power setting it takes to maintain your desired airspeed at your current decent rate should be noted for future reference as a target power setting. This power setting is going to vary slightly depending on altitude temperature and weight.

I personally use pitch first to correct for glide slope and then correct for airspeed with power.

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Phantom Flyer

I'm surprised that there are even four responses. Your opinion poll is flawed because the correct answer is (C), BOTH. One uses pitch and power as the responders have correctly stated. I find it difficult to believe that there is any discussion on the topic.

How about an "interesting and meaningful" opinion poll and discussion.

G'Day Mates

USN C9B

Power is rate of decent and pitch is airspeed. To maintain the glideslope on the proper speed, you adjust both!

C9

Groundhog

The FAA mantra: Pitch is altitude; power is airspeed.

Established inbound the pitch and power is set to maintain a constant airspeed and constant descent rate on the GS.
Due to changes in the wind, the AC goes below the GS.
The first adjustment would be to make a small change to pitch to decrease the descent rate. That would be followed (quickly/simultaneously) by a small increase in power to maintain approach speed.

Hog

peteq

When you first start flying Cessna's they drum into you - use the throttle for altitude and the yoke for airspeed. When you're approaching with a 152 or a 172 you're using mostly the throttle to float yourself to the ground.

On bigger planes you're flying the plane to the runway, it's a combination of the two.

hotelmode

You are all wrong! The correct answer is D, Let the autopilot do it.

But, if it's broken, I do both.