Procedure turns and course reversals

The barbed arrow, HILPT, teardrop, and when a pilot may skip the turn, on the real Worcester VOR/DME 33.

15 min read · Charts and procedures

After this lesson you can

  • Explain why some approaches require a course reversal at all, and read the barbed arrow that shows how to fly one.
  • Tell a hold-in-lieu-of-procedure-turn (HILPT) apart from a conventional 45/180 procedure turn, and fly each correctly.
  • List the situations in which 14 CFR 91.175(j) prohibits flying a procedure turn even when one is depicted.
  • Recognize a dual-purpose IF/IAF and explain why the same fix changes identity mid-approach.

An airplane arriving at an approach's initial fix is rarely already lined up with the runway. A course reversal is the maneuver that turns the aircraft around, from whatever direction it arrived, onto the inbound final approach course, and there are two families of it in wide use: the classic procedure turn and its modern replacement, the hold-in-lieu-of-procedure-turn.

This lesson reads the real VOR/DME RWY 33 approach into Worcester Regional (KORH), which uses a HILPT at one initial approach fix and a NoPT (no procedure turn) route at another, letting a single chart show both sides of the same decision.

The rest of this lesson

  1. 1.Why a course reversal at all
  2. 2.The barbed arrow: a conventional procedure turn
  3. 3.HILPT: the hold that replaces the turn
  4. 4.A real HILPT: LAWRN on the Worcester VOR/DME 33
  5. 5.PUTNAM: the NoPT route on the same chart
  6. 6.When a procedure turn is never authorized
  7. 7.The dual-purpose fix: IAF becomes IF

These 7 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the IFR track. Paid once, yours for good.

See what the IFR track costsEvery module 1 is free to read, no account, no card.

Key terms

Try to recall each definition before turning the card.