Decision Altitude is primarily used during which flight phase?

• A. Instrument approaches
• B. Visual approaches
• C. Takeoff under VFR
• D. In-flight refueling

Answer: (A)

Decision altitude marks the point on an instrument approach where you must decide whether you have the required visual references to continue and land, or initiate a missed approach. It’s used on instrument procedures that provide vertical guidance, such as precision approaches like ILS (and other approaches with vertical guidance) where a published DA tells you when to commit to landing. If you reach the DA and don’t have the runway environment or the necessary visuals, you execute the missed approach. This concept is specific to instrument flight under IFR, where decisions are made based on instruments rather than outside visuals. Visual approaches don’t use a fixed altitude for a go-around decision, and takeoffs under VFR or in-flight refueling aren’t conducted using a decision altitude, so they don’t apply here.