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

Approach plate briefings have become tricky with all the conflicting advice flying around — “just follow the bold line,” “memorize the sections,” “your CFI will walk you through it.” As someone who froze completely during my first instrument ground session, I spent real time learning the ins and outs of reading these charts the hard way. My CFI slid a Jeppesen plate across the table — the ILS or LOC RWY 28L at KSFO, dog-eared at the corner, coffee ring on the back — and said, “Walk me through your briefing.” I stared at it like it was a disassembled watch. Tiny numbers stacked on tinier numbers. Boxes nested inside other boxes. A dotted line that looked like the cartographer had a change of heart somewhere over the Bay. If you’re sitting in that chair right now, this is what I wish someone had put in front of me before that session started.

We’re going through a real approach plate the same way a CFI does it with a fresh instrument student — section by section, in plain language, no assumptions about your baseline.

The Four Sections of Every Approach Plate

Before you brief anything, you need to know where to look. Every FAA approach plate — published through AeroNav, free on ForeFlight or on paper in those legacy 5.375 × 8.25-inch chart books — is divided into four sections. Every plate. Every airport. Same layout. That consistency is the entire point of the system.

Top to bottom, here’s the geography:

1. The briefing strip — the very top of the chart. Airport name, approach type, frequencies, inbound course, and missed approach instructions all live here.
2. The plan view — the large circular map in the upper center. Bird’s eye view of the whole approach. Fixes, headings, missed approach routing.
3. The profile view — a side-view diagram below the plan view, showing your altitude at each fix along the approach path.
4. The minimums section — the box at the bottom. Ceiling and visibility requirements, organized by aircraft category. Your go/no-go numbers.

Get oriented to this layout before you read anything specific. Think of it like a newspaper — front page, maps, data tables. You don’t read a newspaper randomly. You don’t brief an approach plate randomly either.

Start Here — The Briefing Strip

Worth flagging before going further, because every single briefing starts here. 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’re flying. “ILS OR LOC RWY 28L” means you can fly it using the full instrument landing system or — if the glideslope goes offline — as a localizer-only approach. The runway number tells you your magnetic landing heading, roughly 280 degrees in this case. Pull up the wrong plate for the wrong runway and you are going to have a genuinely bad day. Always verify the plate matches your clearance. Always.

Frequencies

The briefing strip lists frequencies roughly in the order you’ll use them. ATIS first. Then approach control. Then the localizer or ILS frequency — 111.70 MHz for the SFO ILS 28L. Then tower. Then ground. Some students try to juggle these from memory in flight. Skip past the mistake I made. Write them on your knee board before you start the engine — I use a $4.99 ASA knee board with a half-sheet of notebook paper, frequencies in two-inch block letters. Old school. Works every time.

Inbound Course

This is the magnetic course you’ll fly on final. Usually close to the runway heading — but not always identical, especially on RNAV approaches. The ILS 28L at SFO uses 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 is the part students skip because they’re feeling optimistic. Don’t. The missed approach procedure is printed in plain 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 find the runway, you execute that procedure immediately — no hesitation, no extra second staring hopefully 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 occupying most of the upper half of the chart. Drawn roughly to scale, with a compass rose or at least a north arrow, it shows the entire approach environment from directly above.

Initial Approach Fixes and Feeder Routes

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

The Bold Course Line

Right down the center of the plan view runs a thick, solid line. That’s your final approach course. It starts at the final approach fix, runs straight to the runway. That’s what makes this line endearing to us instrument pilots — everything else on the chart 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 environment — you’ll find a dashed line. That’s the missed approach track. It shows you geographically where you’re headed if you go missed — usually a turn toward 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 rather than just memorizing words.

Minimum Safe Altitudes

In the corners of the plan view you’ll often see MSA — Minimum Safe Altitude — depicted as a circle divided into sectors, centered on a navaid. These altitudes guarantee 1,000 feet of obstacle clearance within 25 nautical miles of the navaid. Emergency reference numbers, not flying altitudes. But if something goes sideways and you’re disoriented, MSA tells you immediately where you’re safe.

Profile View — Your Altitude Roadmap

Drop your eyes to the center section — the side-view diagram that looks like a cross-section of the approach path. This is the profile view. Altitude information for every fix on the approach lives here.

Step-Down Fixes

On non-precision approaches — no glideslope — you’ll see a series of descending steps toward the runway. Each step corresponds to a fix, 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. At or after. Descending early is how airplanes meet terrain. The profile view makes those step-downs explicit: fix name, altitude, distance. Read left to right — same direction you’re flying.

Glideslope Angle

On precision approaches — ILS, LPV, GLS — you won’t see step-downs. You’ll see a continuous glidepath, typically 3.0 degrees, depicted as a sloping line from the intercept altitude down to the runway threshold. The angle is printed right on the plate. Standard is 3.00°. Some airports run steeper — 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, not after your VSI surprises you.

Decision Altitude vs. Minimum Descent Altitude

But what is the difference between DA and MDA? In essence, it’s the type of approach you’re flying. But it’s much more than that — and confusing them is a real problem.

Decision Altitude applies to precision approaches. You reach DA, you either have the runway environment in sight and continue, or you execute the missed approach. No loitering at DA. No extra two seconds of hoping.

Minimum Descent Altitude applies to non-precision approaches. You level off at MDA and fly level until you see the runway and can make a normal descent — or until you reach the Missed Approach Point and go missed. You cannot descend below MDA just because something bright might be down there. MDA is a floor. Full stop.

The profile view shows both. DA is marked with a lightning bolt symbol on some plates. MDA appears as a horizontal line. The actual numbers live in the minimums section at the bottom of the chart.

Minimums — Your Go/No-Go Decision

The minimums box sits at the very bottom of the approach plate. It’s a table — your job is to find your row and know your numbers before the approach begins.

Aircraft Categories A Through D

Aircraft get assigned approach categories based on 1.3 times their stall speed in landing configuration — Vso. Category A is under 91 knots. Category B runs 91–120 knots. Category C covers 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 land in Category B depending on weight. Jets are typically C or D.

Higher-speed aircraft need more maneuvering room at minimums — so their minimums are higher. A Category A aircraft on an ILS might see a DA of 200 feet and a half-mile visibility. The same approach for a Category C aircraft might require 300 feet and three-quarters of a mile. Find your category column before you brief the numbers. Every time.

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 positioned near the runway surface. RVR 2400 means the sensor detects 2,400 feet of forward visibility along the runway. For reference: RVR 6000 equals roughly one statute mile.

Frustrated by a long day of ground school, I once briefed the wrong visibility column on a LOC approach — wrote down a half-mile when my category actually required three-quarters. My instructor caught it during the pre-approach brief. That half-second of silence while he stared at my knee board before quietly pointing to the correct column — I have never misread a minimums box since. Don’t repeat what I did.

What Happens When You Reach Minimums and Cannot See

Go missed. Immediately. 14 CFR 91.175 requires specific visual references in sight before you descend below DA or past the MAP — approach lights, threshold markings, touchdown zone lights, runway lights, among others. “I can see something glowing” is not a legal visual reference. “I have the approach light system in sight” is.

Reach DA on an ILS and the world outside is a grey wall — you climb, you turn, you fly the missed approach you already 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 your brain already knows the answer when you need it.

Reading approach plates is a skill that compounds — honestly, more than almost anything else in instrument training. The first plate takes twenty minutes to decode. After fifty approaches, you brief a new plate in ninety seconds and start feeling the gaps intuitively — the altitude that seems too low for that terrain, the unusually steep glidepath, the missed approach that sends you right back toward 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’ve got. Find the briefing strip. Find your inbound course. Find your Category A minimums. That’s your first briefing. You just did it.