Definition
Instrument approaches in which an air traffic controller uses ground-based radar to provide navigational guidance to a pilot during the approach to a runway. The two types are the Airport Surveillance Radar (ASR) approach, which provides azimuth (left/right) guidance only, and the Precision Approach Radar (PAR) approach, which provides both azimuth and glidepath guidance. The controller issues headings and, where applicable, altitude advisories by radio while watching the aircraft on the radar scope.
Plain English
An approach to a runway in poor weather where a controller watches the aircraft on radar and tells the pilot, by radio, exactly where to fly. Instead of the pilot following an onboard instrument like an ILS, the controller does the navigating and the pilot just flies the headings and, in some cases, descent advice they are given.
Context Anchor
Seen during instrument operations, including approaches to airports without an operating control tower when radar service is available from a nearby control facility.
Derivation
Radar comes from the wartime acronym for Radio Detection And Ranging. In a radar approach, that same detection ability is used by a controller to guide an aircraft down toward the runway, hence the name.
Why Pilots Care
Enables safe instrument arrivals at remote or non-towered airports without requiring advanced onboard navigation equipment.
Intuition Check
Do not read “approach” here as just getting near the airport. In this context, an approach is a structured procedure for guiding the aircraft toward landing.
Example Sentence 1
After losing the GPS receiver in low visibility, the pilot requested a radar approach and followed the controller's headings to the runway.
Example Sentence 2
Controllers terminated the radar approach once the pilot reported the runway in sight.