397 APR Key Explained: GPS Approach & Autopilot Errors to Avoid with DPE Jim Pitman
Aviation News Talk podcast
Glass Cockpit Publishing
4.8 • 730 Ratings
🗓️ 15 August 2025
⏱️ 77 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Max talks with airline pilot and Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) Jim Pitman to clear up a persistent avionics myth: that pressing the APR (Approach) key activates a GPS approach. In reality, APR is part of the automatic flight control system (AFCS)—not the GPS navigator. Its function is to arm the flight director’s lateral and vertical capture modes so the autopilot (if engaged) can follow the approach path. You can also view a video version of this episode. Just look on the page for August 15, 2025 video. And while you're on that page, please sign up to support the show.
Jim’s “apples vs. oranges” analogy helps pilots keep the two systems straight:
Apples = GPS navigator functions like activating an approach, sequencing waypoints, and CDI scaling.
Oranges = AFCS/autopilot functions like heading, NAV, APR, and altitude hold modes.
Max and Jim break down common scenarios in G1000 and Garmin Perspective+ cockpits, including:
- How to know an approach is active (look for magenta waypoint below the approach title).
- Why APR is often pressed at the wrong time—and how that can disarm modes.
- When to press NAV instead of APR (e.g., intercepting before clearance).
- How to interpret scaling modes (LPV, LNAV, terminal, en route) inside the HSI.
- Using OBS mode effectively and when to turn it off.
They also discuss common checkride errors, such as failing to deselect OBS or mishandling the SUSP (suspend) key during a hold. Jim explains why the FAA expects private pilot applicants to demonstrate basic knowledge of installed automation—even without an instrument rating.
You’ll hear practical techniques to avoid “automation surprise,” like keeping the active flight plan visible, always checking the flight mode annunciator (“scoreboard”) before and after pressing a button, and using the “look–press–look” habit.
Finally, they clarify the confusion between loading and activating an approach: often, the best way to start is simply going direct to the IAF or IF rather than pressing “Activate Approach.”
Pilots can download Jim’s free “G1000 Common Errors & Solutions” guide at flywithjim.com/G1000 and Whether you fly glass-cockpit IFR regularly or are just starting instrument training, this episode will help you use the APR key correctly, fly more precise GPS approaches, and avoid costly autopilot errors.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Here's a question for you. When you're flying an instrument approach, does pressing the APR key, |
| 0:07.1 | sometimes called the approach key, activate your GPS approach? It doesn't. And that misunderstanding |
| 0:13.7 | trips up pilots on check rides and in real-world IFR flying all the time. Today, airline pilot in |
| 0:20.2 | DPE, Jim Pittman, joins me to explain what the APR |
| 0:24.3 | key really does and how to avoid autopilot surprises and the simple habits that keep GPS approaches |
| 0:30.8 | smooth and error-free. Hello again and welcome to Aviation News Talk where we're talking general |
| 0:35.6 | aviation. My name is Max Truscott. I've been flying for 50 years on the author of several books and the 2008 National |
| 0:41.3 | Flight Instructor of the Year, and my mission is to help you become the safest possible pilot. |
| 0:47.3 | Last week in episode 396, we talked with EAA's Sean Elliott about the FAA's long-awaited Mosaic rule and how it transforms GA, |
| 0:57.2 | including giving all pilots more options if they choose not to get a medical as they get older. |
| 1:02.4 | So if you didn't hear that episode, you may want to check it out at AviationNews.com. |
| 1:06.2 | And if you were new to this show, welcome. |
| 1:10.1 | Glad you found us. Now, if you would in whatever |
| 1:12.3 | app that you're using to listen to us in, touch either the subscribe key or in Spotify or the Apple |
| 1:17.4 | podcast app, the follow key so that next week's episode is downloaded for free. And during the past |
| 1:23.3 | week, I posted three bonus episodes that brought you highlights of the 30 hours of testimony that I'd |
| 1:29.0 | listened to from the NTSB's investigative hearing into the Reagan National Mid-Air collision |
| 1:34.1 | between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a regional jet that occurred in January. |
| 1:38.9 | When you listen to those highlights, you'll learn about at least 10 different things that |
| 1:43.2 | contributed to the accident |
| 1:44.4 | and about how this was an accident just waiting to happen. |
| 1:48.6 | To hear those episodes, you need to search in your podcast app for NTSB News Talk. |
... |
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