When and how do I align with the runway during an offset ILS approach?
Looking at my old approach plates, the ILS for Rwy 22R at KJFK of 24 JUL 1998 had an inbound course of 220&deg;. The runway centerline was 224&deg;, so a 4&deg; difference. Decision height was 250'AGL.

In the 747, if we broke out before the decision height and had a clear look at the runway, we would in a shallow coordinated turn decrease our heading so as to intercept the runway centerline course visually and then we would visually turn onto and track the centerline.

The difficulty was when it was foggy, and all you could see near or at the decision height were the approach lights but not the runway sufficiently to visually acquire its course. You knew you had to correct to the right, but the tendency, at least for me, was to over correct because the approach lights were seemingly considerably off to the right, the more so the lower you were when you first saw them.

In the 747 you can safely use a 5&deg; bank without dragging anything. As I remember the first thing to drag would be an outboard engine pod, but whatever. Thus, even up to the 100' call of the radar altimeter, a coordinated shallow bank would get you lined up, but you needed to be quick about it as your groundspeed would be around 160kn.

The first time I made the approach under those minimal conditions, I did indeed over correct. My choice going into the flare was enough left rudder and aileron to get the nose to the runway heading and then maintaining the 5&deg; bank to slip back to the left. Having made the over correction that first time, I was careful not to repeat the mistake.

It's been nearly 20 years since I last shot that approach. I looked at the approach plate of 08 MAR 2012 on the Internet, and I see that they've straightened things out. The approach course is 222&deg;, the runway centerline course 223&deg;. Decision height is still 250' AGL.