What is wrong with the ILS approaches at LOWI?
Nothing! LOWI (Innsbruck, Austria) is the new default start-up airport for X-Plane. It is a beautiful location in a deep valley, but it has very unusual real-world approaches that can confuse the unwary. LOWI has has LOC-DME approaches from the East and West: • The LOWI LOC-DME from the East is offset 5 degrees from the runway heading and includes an “advisory” glideslope (hence it is not referred to as an “ILS”). • The LOWI LOC-DME from the West (illustrated to the right) is even more unusual – the localizer is positioned a few miles east of LOWI, and the approach calls for overflying the field to the MDA, and then if visual, performing a course reversal to the south in the valley and landing on either runway visually (which might require yet another course reversal for a circling approach to runway 06). Although this looks very odd on X-Plane’s charts, I believe that the nav-aids properly positioned. • Official approach charts for LOWI can be found here.
