garmin tips
Another in our continuing series on getting the most from your Garmin flight management system, by Keith Thomassen, PhD, CFII
On most approaches you'll be offered vectors to final, so let's explore those. Departing Centennial (KAPA) for Rocky Mountain Metro (KBJC), we go D->KBJC and LOAD the ILS 29R with a Vector transition. The "flight plan" before adding the approach is shown in the upper left, and is clearly not a flight plan (the list of legs is empty), but instead is a D-> KBJC operation as listed in the title.
When the approach is added (lower left) we have a flight plan, consisting just of the procedure legs. The upper right shows us proceeding towards KBJC. When vectored off of our course, you should "jump ahead" to activate the leg to ALIKE. You could put the cursor on it, and chose Activate Leg from the FPL menu, or push D-> twice. However, the fast way, and exactly equivalent, is to choose Activate Vectors-To-Final from the PROC menu, resulting in the picture shown in the lower right.
In this figure, map detail disappears as indicated by the 50�A scale ("A" means automatic decluttering). If you want to see some of the lost detail, use CLR to go through three levels of decluttering, 50-1, 50-2, or 50-3. Note too, on the upper right map that the VTF leg is not displayed in white, so we can't see where it is (we know from the approach plate it is along a 293� course on this North-Up map).
In this case the SUSP light doesn't appear, so there is NAV (or GPSS) guidance to the VTF course. Our course to KBJC was 319�, and after Activating Vectors it is 293�, less than a 45� change and hence no leg suspension. If the change in course to the VTF is more than 45� sequencing will be suspended until we are within a 45� cone around final. Lastly, the title of the flight plan changes to ALIKE/KBJC on activating the VTF leg.
Now, suppose we make a real flight plan from KAPA to KBJC, as shown in the figures below. When the approach is added, the VTF course is shown in white so we see where it is. Now, choose Activate Vectors-To-Final and the leg to ALIKE becomes active (short magenta arrow next to ALIKE). Be aware that this VTF leg isn't always aligned with the course from FAF to MAP.
When the approach is loaded, the ILS frequency (111.7) goes automatically into standby and you need to flip it to active if you want the required CDI switch from GPS to VLOC to occur. In the CDI/Alarms item in an AUX page you need to select Auto ILS CDI Switch. In the lower right, we are intercepting the VTF outside of ALIKE (the FAF), but we need to intercept between 2 and 15 nm for Auto Switching to occur.
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