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A C177 pilot unable to conduct an ILS to his destination airport asked for an ILS to a nearby airport and was immediately vectored to it. Because of the hurried conditions; the ILS was not selected but the perfectly centered CDI displayed properly. ATC issued a low altitude alert.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 867305 |
| Time | |
| Date | 200912 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | GRR.Airport |
| State Reference | MI |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | IMC |
| Light | Dusk |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Cardinal 177/177RG |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
| Flight Phase | Initial Approach |
| Route In Use | Vectors |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 45 Flight Crew Total 830 Flight Crew Type 220 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy |
Narrative:
I had planned and configured the aircraft for the ILS approach at my filed destination. The controller provided the latest conditions suggesting little chance of completing the landing and diverting to a nearby VFR airport. So I asked for the ILS runway 26L approach to a nearby major airport. I had to reconfigure the GPS and radios while close to the IAF and on vectors. I arrived at IAF on course and proper altitude. The autopilot was then set to approach mode from the activated approach loaded on my garmin 430W GPS. I flew the localizer perfectly. My error was to neglect to tune the navigation frequency when I activated the approach so as a result only the localizer was being indicted on the CDI (from the GPS course). What looked like a perfectly crossed glideslope and localizer needle was totally erroneous. Because the runway was in sight this whole time; I was not actually flying by the needles and didn't notice the implausible perfect crossed CDI never moved. When I drifted low on the GPS; the tower controller issued a low altitude alert. I was below the glideslope on centerline course. Lessons driven home: don't be pressed and tune and identify the frequency even on a GPS device.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A C177 pilot unable to conduct an ILS to his destination airport asked for an ILS to a nearby airport and was immediately vectored to it. Because of the hurried conditions; the ILS was not selected but the perfectly centered CDI displayed properly. ATC issued a low altitude alert.
Narrative: I had planned and configured the aircraft for the ILS approach at my filed destination. The Controller provided the latest conditions suggesting little chance of completing the landing and diverting to a nearby VFR airport. So I asked for the ILS Runway 26L approach to a nearby major airport. I had to reconfigure the GPS and radios while close to the IAF and on vectors. I arrived at IAF on course and proper altitude. The autopilot was then set to Approach mode from the activated approach loaded on my Garmin 430W GPS. I flew the localizer perfectly. My error was to neglect to tune the NAV frequency when I activated the approach so as a result only the localizer was being indicted on the CDI (from the GPS course). What looked like a perfectly crossed glideslope and localizer needle was totally erroneous. Because the runway was in sight this whole time; I was not actually flying by the needles and didn't notice the implausible perfect crossed CDI never moved. When I drifted low on the GPS; the Tower Controller issued a low altitude alert. I was below the glideslope on centerline course. Lessons driven home: Don't be pressed and tune and identify the frequency even on a GPS device.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.