CONSTANT RATE/AIRSPEED descents are key to flying instrument approaches in airplanes-Flight Training 

That’s awesome to hear! 🙌🏻 you’ll love the instrument course as a review when it hits

It comes from old FAA books and really works. Check out our app, there is so much in there that will help you. apps.apple.com/us/app/ground-school/id1444387206

I can see using slight pitch changes, to make small corrections in the vertical speed to stay on glide path, when closer to the DA or MDA. I wasn't taught to control the airplane in this manner, to stay on glide slope through the whole approach. I learned to configure the airplane(flaps, gear), pitch and trim to approach speed for stabilized approach, and the throttle lever was "connected" to the glide slope. Glide slope goes up, power goes up--glide slope goes down, power goes down. Airspeed doesn't change, trim doesn't change. Jason actually did this in the approach, but in a Rube Goldberg manner...:). After he pitched up, to change the vertical speed, the airplane slowed down, so he added power to get back to the target airspeed. Now, if he didn't get the airspeed exactly back to where it was before the power change, airplane needs to be re-trimmed, and is out of trim once he changed the pitch. By changing the pitch, now he affected the vertical speed, airspeed, and trim. He could have accomplished the desired outcome, which was decreasing his vertical speed, by just adding a little power. This is actually what he did in the end, after changing the pitch...right? The end result of everything he did, to stay on airspeed and glide path, was add power. If you are in your car, and want to turn left.... you could make three right turns, or just make one left turn....puts you in the same direction. For the record, I think Jason is an awesome pilot, instructor, and his videos and instructions are on point and helpful. I have used some of his stuff, for teaching my own students. We all don;t have to fly the exact same way, process information-to be safe and good pilots.I think if he really analyzed what he was teaching in this exact scenario, he would agree all he had to do was add a little power....because that is what he did in the end to stay stabilized on glide slope and airspeed.

That would be for a normal visual approach in which you are at very much reduced power settings - pitch becomes very important for airspeed because it is more about energy management at that point. For instrument approaches, you aren’t necessarily in a glide configuration, but more of a power-on descent to maintain a constant vertical speed and ground speed. In that case, the very minor pitch changes needed to maintain that VSI at 500fpm will do very little to your airspeed/ground speed. You would only adjust the power if the airspeed started to suffer from the pitch change. It may seem a little like “chasing the VSI” to some degree, but it is a much more precise way to manage your vertical descent. If you can execute the initial setup of 500fpm/90kts accurately from the start, it is going to take very little in the way of pitch adjustments to maintain. I like to think of it in terms of the localizer needle - you don’t chase that needle, but rather make small changes to heading to keep on track or re-center that needle. It’s a game of small adjustments sprinkled with a little bit of patience to avoid making too many changes and snowballing yourself into a botched approach.

@@nursenick06 This is a good discussion, so let's keep analyzing it. Physics of flight don't change when in IFR conditions. You state-pitch becomes very important for airspeed and something about energy management. Could you explain more what energy management is, in regards to flying a stabilized approach. I am not familiar with this concept or been instructed in this area. When is pitch not very important? It's always primary in stabilized flight, in VFR or IFR conditions for airspeed. When you change pitch, airspeed changes, and then ground speed changes, which will cause more issues for maintaining glideslope at a constant airspeed.(even slight changes) Most VASI lights and pattern procedures for VFR operations are set up and designed for a 500 FPM descent, so pretty much all GA aircraft are doing a power-on(reduced settings) descent in the pattern and final approach. I know Jason teaches power off patterns and landings, but that is not the norm for most of GA. "You would only adjust the power, if the airspeed changes". Watch the video again, at the 7:00 -7:12 minute mark. Jason has her pitch up, and add power, because the airplane is very slightly low on glideslope, and slow on target airspeed. This is after a few seconds previous in the video, she states she is pitching down a little bit to maintain glideslope. I'm not making this up, it's in the video. "If you can execute the initial setup of 500fpm/90kts accurately from the start, it is going to take very little in the way of pitch adjustments to maintain."-for sure-like zero pitch adjustments if the airplane is trimmed for 90. The airplane will stay exactly at 90, unless you change the pitch, even if you make power changes, the airspeed remains constant. My point I'm trying to make...is if you are a little high or low on glideslope, just adjust the power setting, and you will get an immediate change in the vertical speed, without destabilizing the pitch and airspeed. That is much more precise and less chasing pitch and power settings, than changing the pitch-which changes groundspeed and trim setting, and then adding power to speed back up. I can see initially , when transitioning from cruise settings and configuring for the approach, to using pitch to establish your vertical speed, but not after setting power and trimming for the correct airspeed after established on the glideslope. I am going to try this method, though, on some practice approaches and see if it works for me to control the airplane "backwards" while on a glideslope, and see if it is more precise and stable than how I currently control the airplane.

Something very similar, this just really happened the other day and it’s a great reminder. The algorithm tends to bury the old videos and new viewers Mia the concepts

@@TheFinerPoints I only know bc I rewatch your videoes often as a form of recurrent training and practice some of these moves. I did this in my airplane last week to see if I could still hand fly an approach instead of AP coupled. I am excited about an IFR component to the ground school. I wish there would be a commercial one too. I also wish you were based on the east coast :(