Step Down Approach
First of all, slow down. Know the pitch attitude, power setting, and configuration that will give the most rapid descent you can control at the 90 kts approach speed. Practice this descent and level off until it is not part of the problem. The step-down approach requires you to be able to control the maximum performance capabilities of your aircraft. Doing this gives you time to pick up the runway, configure the aircraft, and execute a normal landing.

Stabilized Approach
--Determine primary heading
--Established outside FAF
--+ 5 degrees to MAP

IFR Stabilized Approach Defined
--1000 feet above airport elevation when IFR (500 feet VFR)
--Aircraft on correct flight path and requiring only small corrections
--Speed no more than 20kts above Vref nor less than Vref
--Aircraft in landing configuration
--Sink rate below 1000 fpm.
--ILS needles within one dot of center
--Wings level 300 feet above airport elevation when circling
--Sterile cockpit inside IAF

Full approach
The FULL Approach always includes the procedure turn. Anything else is considered a straight-in approach via: (Within 30 degrees of runway alignment)
--Vectors
--NoPT Transition from a holding pattern
--DME arc

Holding Pattern Approach
If a holding pattern is part of the approach the pattern maneuver is completed when the aircraft is established on the inbound course after executing the appropriate entry. (AIM 5-48) ATC expects you to proceed straight-in when crossing the fix. ATC does not expect/require a holding turn from any entry that allows you to arrive at the holding fix within 30-degrees and at altitude. AIM 5-48(a)(4) The holding pattern maneuver is considered complete when the aircraft executes an entry that establishes it on the inbound course. A radio report is required. If you wish to do the complete pattern one or more times, for practice or to become better established, advise ATC.

Coupled Approach
The use of autopilot may not be allowed due to roughness (wavering) of signals. The faster the aircraft the more likely the problem. If you have this equipment be moderate in its use and your reliance on it. Use the autopilot only enough to maintain currency in its use. Fly basic instruments on raw data and partial panel as opportunities arise. Allowing the autopilot to become the dominant factor over personal proficiency is a mistake.

Missed Approach
Considerations--
--Stress can affect your decision making
--Good option choices become more limited
--Self discipline is needed to choose the missed
--Check destination early…
--Expect to miss

Uncontrolled Airport Practice Missed Approaches
Begin the missed-approach soon enough to remain above the traffic pattern altitude by 1000'.

Missed Approach Altitude
Not the DH or MDA but is rather the altitude you are expected to climb to without further ATC instructions.

Missed-Approach Surface
Slopes from MAP at 150 feet per nautical mile (225 fpm at 90kts) up to 1000' below the Missed Approach Altitude. No obstacle can intrude into this plane.  Primary area of the Missed Approach Surface begins at the missed approach point (MAP) and spreads to eight miles wide (four to either side of straight line) at 15 miles out.

Early missed Approach
Aircraft must fly to MAP before making any turns. However aircraft may climb before reaching the MAP. One reason for timing an ILS approach is because this is the best way to know you have reached the DH when no descent is made.

The Real World Missed
It goes without saying that any accident that occurs during a missed approach is the direct result of a poorly performed procedure. The Missed has a 40:1, no buffer, 152 ft/nm required climb gradient. This is less than the 200 ft/nm for a departure. Since there is no missed safety margin, you would be well advised to use the departure climb for obstacle clearance. You will have the width of an airway in 15 nautical miles plus a two-mile-wide secondary area on each side.

The planning of the missed according to TERPS is that it must be simple, the altitude to climb to must be an en route or holding altitude that will avoid obstacles. The clearances and gradient of any missed that has less than a 15 degree turn is considered straight. Only airspace or terrain are allowed to void the simplicity of the straight missed procedure. Many procedures do not have FAFs so the MAP will always be the navigational facility regardless of location on or past the airport. Make sure than your approach speed is appropriate for the category box on the approach plate.

There are two basic kinds of missed approaches, the kind you are prepared for and the kind you are not prepared for nor expecting. This second kind of approach flies in the face of the training edict that you must expect a missed and not a landing from every approach. We become so used to always landing that the missed comes as a shock. We forget to add full power, clean up the aircraft, get a positive rate of climb, climb to the turn altitude, turn, contact approach. The report of the missed being executed is mandatory.

The expectation of landing is relatively high with experienced pilots. In practice approaches you know you are going to miss or land as planned. Making the missed when you are not expecting it requires a new sort of thinking. You probably have not prepared the missed as you should have. You must confirm timing or DME, climb, clean-up, which way, how far, how high, what next? When multiple approaches are followed by the missed, it is during the missed that the accidents usually occur.

Missed Basics:
1. Pitch for climb
2. Clean up per POH
3. Direction
4. Altitude

The worst case missed is when you are VFR until inside the FAF. The fudging of minimums appears to be more likely to occur in this approach situation. Beyond the MAP or below the minimums you must have the visuals or execute the missed. You ability to time and fly a speed related to that time is critical where a timing missed is part of the procedure. DME is better than timing where available. Any delay in executing the missed means that you will begin below the designed climb gradient which has no margin for such an event.

End of Approach 'Unexpecteds'
Training procedures include not only briefing the approach but the missed approach even though the vast majority of actual conditions approaches seldom end with the missed. Thus, the occasion of needing to make an unexpected missed approach usually catches the student pilot unprepared for the missed segment procedure.

The unusual aspect of missed approaches is that unlike the similarity of all the other approach segments, the missed all vary one from the other. Early study of the missed approach procedure improves the chances that it will be correctly performed. The importance of this planning procedure became even more important when the missed came as an unexpected event.

However, if you fail in your missed planning and preparation, you should know that standard in all the varied procedures of the missed a standard of climb and turn always exists. It is the height of the climb and the direction of the turn that varies. You don't need to look to your chart, climb as best able on heading while reporting to ATC. Only when fully established in the climb should you consider looking at the plate and reading instructions. The symbolic indicators of the latest charts are even better and quicker than the text.

In the climb you now determine how high before turning, which way, and how far. This is one area where fiddling with the autopilot or GPS or other navigational aids should be minimized and emphasis placed upon proficient hand flying. The end of every missed procedure ends in a fix with a holding procedure. If the fix is an intersection getting there may be a problem. Get a vector or crank up your GPS. The overall pattern of the missed approach makes it possible for the unprepared pilot to line up the ducks and keep out of trouble.

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