How to Read Approach Plates — A Student Pilot’s First Briefing

Learning how to read approach plates was, genuinely, one of the most disorienting moments of my instrument training. My CFI slid a Jeppesen chart across the table — it was the ILS or LOC RWY 28L at KSFO — and said, “Walk me through your briefing.” I stared at it like it was a circuit board. Tiny numbers everywhere. Boxes inside boxes. A dotted line that looked like it was drawn by someone who changed their mind halfway through. If you are sitting in that chair right now, this article is what I wish someone had handed me before that session.

We are going to go through a real approach plate the same way a CFI does it with a fresh instrument student — section by section, in plain language, with no assumptions about what you already know.

The Four Sections of Every Approach Plate

Before you can brief anything, you need to know where to look. Every FAA approach plate — the ones published by the government through AeroNav, available free on apps like ForeFlight or on paper in the legacy 5.375 × 8.25-inch chart books — is divided into four distinct sections. Every plate. Every airport. Same layout every time. That consistency is the whole point.

Here is the basic geography, top to bottom:

The briefing strip — the very top of the chart. Airport name, approach type, frequencies, inbound course, and missed approach instructions all live here.
The plan view — the large circular map in the upper center. This is the bird’s eye view of the approach. It shows you where fixes are, what headings connect them, and where the missed approach takes you.
The profile view — a side-view diagram below the plan view, showing your altitude at each fix along the approach path.
The minimums section — the box at the bottom. This is your go/no-go decision point. Ceiling and visibility requirements, organized by aircraft category.

Orient yourself to this layout before you try to read anything specific. Think of it like a newspaper — there’s a front page, a map section, a data table. You don’t read a newspaper randomly. You don’t brief an approach plate randomly either.

Start Here — The Briefing Strip

Probably should have opened with this section, honestly, because this is where every single briefing starts. The briefing strip runs across the top of the chart and packs in more information per square inch than almost anything else in aviation documentation.

Airport Name and Approach Type

The top line tells you what approach you are flying. “ILS OR LOC RWY 28L” means you can fly this approach using the full instrument landing system or, if the glideslope is out, as a localizer-only approach. The runway number tells you the magnetic heading you’ll be landing on — roughly 280 degrees in that case. If you pull up the wrong plate for the wrong runway, you are going to have a bad day. Always verify the plate matches your clearance.

Frequencies

The briefing strip lists the frequencies you’ll use, roughly in the order you’ll use them. ATIS comes first. Then approach control. Then the localizer or ILS frequency — for the SFO ILS 28L, that’s 111.70 MHz. Then tower. Then ground. Some students try to memorize these in flight. Don’t. Write them on your knee board before you even start the engine. I use a $4.99 ASA knee board with a half-sheet of paper and write frequencies in two-inch letters. Old school, works perfectly.

Inbound Course

This is the magnetic course you’ll fly on final. It is usually very close to the runway heading but not always identical, especially on RNAV approaches. The inbound course for the ILS 28L at SFO is 282 degrees. Set it in your OBS or confirm it in your avionics before you’re inside the final approach fix. Not after. Before.

Missed Approach Instructions

This part of the briefing strip is the one students skip because they’re optimistic. Don’t. The missed approach procedure is printed in text at the top of the chart — something like “Climb to 3000 then climbing RIGHT turn to 4000 direct SFO VOR and hold.” You read it aloud during your briefing. You brief it again at the final approach fix. If you reach minimums and can’t see the runway, you execute that procedure immediately. Immediately means no hesitation, no extra second of staring at the fog. Climb, turn, navigate. Read it before you need it.

Plan View — Reading the Bird’s Eye Map

The plan view is the large diagram that takes up most of the upper half of the chart. It’s drawn roughly to scale, with a compass rose or at least a north arrow, and it shows the approach environment from directly above.

Initial Approach Fixes and Feeder Routes

Look for the bold triangles or the labeled fixes with mileage arcs — these are your Initial Approach Fixes, or IAFs. They mark where you can legally begin the instrument approach procedure. If ATC vectors you to the final approach course, you may never cross an IAF at all. But if you’re flying a full procedure, this is your starting point. Feeder routes — the thin lines connecting a VOR or fix to the IAF — show you the course and distance to get established.

The Bold Course Line

Drawn right down the center of the plan view is a thick, solid line. That’s your final approach course. It starts at the final approach fix, runs straight to the runway, and it is the single most important line on the entire chart. Everything else is context. That line is the mission.

The Dotted Line — Missed Approach Track

Running off the end of the bold course line, or branching somewhere near the runway, you’ll see a dashed or dotted line. That is the missed approach track. It shows you geographically where you’re going if you go missed — usually a turn to a VOR, a fix, or a holding pattern. It matches the text in the briefing strip. Cross-reference both. Seeing it visually in the plan view and reading it in the briefing strip together is how you actually internalize the procedure.

Minimum Safe Altitudes

In the corners of the plan view, you’ll often see MSA — Minimum Safe Altitude — depicted in a circle divided into sectors, centered on a navaid. These altitudes provide 1,000 feet of obstacle clearance within 25 nautical miles of the navaid. They’re emergency reference altitudes. You’re not flying the approach at MSA. But if something goes wrong and you’re disoriented, MSA tells you where you’re safe.

Profile View — Your Altitude Roadmap

Drop your eyes to the center section of the plate — the side-view diagram that looks like a cross-section of the approach. This is the profile view, and it is where you get your altitude information for every fix on the approach.

Step-Down Fixes

On non-precision approaches — approaches without a glideslope — you’ll see a series of steps descending toward the runway. Each step corresponds to a fix, usually defined by a VOR radial, a DME distance, or an RNAV waypoint. At each fix, you’re authorized to descend to the next altitude. Not before the fix. At or after. Descending early is how people fly into terrain. The profile view makes those step-downs explicit: fix name, altitude, distance. Learn to read left to right, the same direction you’re flying.

Glideslope Angle

On precision approaches — ILS, LPV, and GLS — you won’t see step-downs. You’ll see a continuous glidepath, usually 3.0 degrees, depicted as a sloping line from the glideslope intercept altitude down to the runway threshold. The angle is printed on the plate. Standard is 3.00°. Some airports have steeper glidepaths — 3.5°, even 4.0° at places like CYVR or certain noise-abatement procedures. A steeper glidepath means a faster descent rate at the same groundspeed. Know what to expect before you intercept it.

Decision Altitude vs Minimum Descent Altitude

This distinction is important enough that I want to say it plainly before I explain it. Decision Altitude (DA) applies to precision approaches. Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA) applies to non-precision approaches. They are not the same thing, and you cannot use them interchangeably.

DA is the altitude at which you make a go/no-go decision on a precision approach. You reach DA, you either see the runway environment and continue, or you execute the missed approach. There is no loitering at DA.

MDA is the lowest altitude you can descend to on a non-precision approach. You level off at MDA and fly level until you either see the runway and can make a normal descent to land, or you reach the Missed Approach Point — MAP — and go missed. You can’t descend below MDA just because you think you might see something soon. MDA is a floor. Full stop.

The profile view shows both. DA is marked with a lightning bolt symbol on some plates. MDA is marked with a horizontal line. The minimums section at the bottom gives you the actual numbers.

Minimums — Your Go/No-Go Decision

The minimums box lives at the very bottom of the approach plate. It looks like a table, and it is. Your job is to find your row and know your numbers before you start the approach.

Aircraft Categories A Through D

Aircraft are assigned approach categories based on 1.3 times their stall speed in the landing configuration — Vso. Category A is under 91 knots. Category B is 91–120 knots. Category C is 121–140 knots. Category D is 141–165 knots. Most training aircraft — your Cessna 172, your Piper PA-28 — are Category A. A Beechcraft Baron might be Category B depending on weight. Jets are typically Category C or D.

Why does this matter? Higher-speed aircraft need more room to maneuver at minimums, so their minimums are higher — more ceiling, more visibility. A Category A aircraft flying an ILS might have a DA of 200 feet and a half-mile visibility. A Category C aircraft on the same approach might need 300 feet and three-quarters of a mile. Always find your category column before you brief the minimums.

Ceiling and Visibility Requirements

The minimums section shows ceiling in feet above the touchdown zone, and visibility in statute miles or runway visual range (RVR) in hundreds of feet. RVR is measured electronically by transmissometers near the runway. RVR 2400 means the sensor is detecting 2,400 feet of forward visibility along the runway. Converting: RVR 6000 equals about one statute mile.

Confused by me once in training, I briefed the wrong visibility column on a LOC approach and wrote down a half-mile when my category required three-quarters. My instructor caught it during the pre-approach brief. That half-second of silence while he looked at my knee board before pointing to the right column — I’ve never misread a minimums box since.

What Happens When You Reach Minimums and Cannot See

Go missed. Immediately. The regulations — specifically 14 CFR 91.175 — require that you have specific visual references in sight before you descend below DA or past the MAP. Those references are a specific list: approach lights, threshold markings, touchdown zone lights, runway lights, and a few others. “I can see something bright” is not a legal visual reference. “I have the approach light system in sight” is.

If you reach DA on an ILS and the world outside is a grey wall of clouds, you climb, you turn, you fly the missed approach you briefed in the briefing strip and visualized in the plan view. No second-guessing. The entire point of briefing the missed approach before the approach is so that when you need it, your brain already knows what to do.

Reading approach plates is a skill that compounds. The first one takes twenty minutes to decode. After fifty approaches, you brief a new plate in ninety seconds and feel the gaps intuitively — the altitude that seems too low for that terrain, the unusually steep glidepath, the missed approach that sends you right back into the departure end of a busy runway. That intuition comes from repetition, and repetition starts with understanding the structure. Four sections. Top to bottom. Every time.

Pull up a plate for your home airport right now — ForeFlight, SkyVector, AeroNav, whatever you have. Find the briefing strip. Find your inbound course. Find your minimums for Category A. That’s your first briefing. You just did it.