Circle-to-land

The Circle-To-LandApproach

A story

The sunshine is brilliant in the blue sky above the cloud topsover which you are skimming along. Well, "you" are encapsulatedin your trusty Speedbird 190 and that is what is just skimmingalong the tops, almost dragging the belly antennas in the clouds.

Approach Control calls. "Speedbird five seven golf you'recleared the VOR one three approach into Oxford. Report leavingfour thousand." You reply. "Cleared the approach, we'reout of four thousand at this time. Speedbird five seven golf.""Roger five seven golf. Report passing through three please.""We'll check through three. Five seven golf."

You are about to shoot one of the most demanding and difficultapproaches that a pilot has in his/her bag of tricks.

The circle-to-land approach.

What is a circle-to-land approach?

Anytime you cannot land straight-in to the runway after goingvisual on an approach.

Why would you shoot a circle-to-land approach?

Well, at some airports that's the only choice that you have.The facility (VOR/VORTAC, LOC, ADF etc.) that serves the airportis not aligned with the runway. You just can't land straight-inwithout turning the aircraft. Or, the surface wind may be suchthat you have to land on a runway other than the one that hasa valid instrument approach.

Why is this approach format so demanding?

Let's follow our Speedbird through our current situation anddo a discussion after she's safely parked on the ramp that iswaiting for her "down there."

Leaving four thousand you are immediately enveloped in a blanketof gossamer milk as you descend into the cloud tops that werebelow you. At the same time the humidity level in the aircraftnoticeably increases, and it's not just due to the sweat on yourbrow or your hands- those clouds that you just entered aremade up of water and that humid air is being fed to the aircraftcabin. You have determined that a descent rate of 800 feet perminute at an airspeed of 120 knots will put you in the right placeon the approach when you reach your MDA (Minimum Descent Altitude)of 1,500 feet- 900 feet above the Oxford airport runway. Reportedvisibility from "big airport" 10 miles away, the onewhose Approach Control you are currently dealing with, is 2 miles-1 mile more than you need to meet minimums for the approach.

"Five seven golf is passing through three thousand atthis time." "Roger five seven golf. Radar contact lost.In the event of a Missed Approach at Oxford fly a heading of onetwo zero degrees, climb and maintain four thousand, contact meon this frequency. Altimeter remains at two niner point ninerone." "OK, Missed Approach is one two zero on the heading,climb to four thousand, and we'll call you on this frequency.Twenty nine ninety one on the altimeter." "That's correctfive seven golf. You can change over to traffic advisory frequencyat this time if you wish." "Thank you, five seven golf."

You reach up and switch comm. radios to the CTAF (Common TrafficAdvisory Frequency) and make a blind radio call. "Oxfordtraffic, Speedbird five seven golf is on the approach, about fivemiles Northeast, descending out of two thousand. We'll be circlingto land on runway three one. Oxford." Surprisingly, thereis a reply on this gray and gloomy day. "Roger five sevengolf. Oxford unicom. Be advised that there is a no radio PiperCub shooting touch-and-goes on runway three one at this time.He's in left traffic." "Thank you Oxford, we'll keepan eye out for him and make pattern calls."

At this time your altimeter has reached 1,500 feet. You stopyour descent but do not add any power, watching your airspeedbleed off as the Speedbird regains her place in the flying worldof physics- mass in motion, power and drag. At this point youhave your approach power set but the gear is still in the wellsand the flaps are still retracted. The VOR needle is nailed- deadnuts center. Visibility is worse than at the "big airport",probably about a mile and a half. There's some lower scud cloudsfloating around down below but they are scattered and do not constituteanother ceiling. Now's a good time to line your ducks up for theMissed Approach. You reach up and set the heading bug on the HSIto 120 degrees, your assigned heading "if."

There it is!

The end of runway 13 appears off of the nose, about 40 degreesto your current direction of flight. Thanks to level flight sinceyou reached 1,500 feet the old Speedbird is down to approach flapairspeed. You drop the first notch, keeping an eye on the runway.The gear stays in the wells. "Oxford traffic, Speedbird fiveseven golf is coming up on the approach end of runway one three.We'll be entering left traffic and landing on runway three one.Oxford." Now, where is that Cub that is shooting touch-and-goes?You quickly scan around the airport boundary in search of thenimble flyer. No luck. Your eyes go back towards the runway.

It's gone!

The scud below has obscured the runway. You only have a secondor it's Missed Approach time. There it is! Now you have crossedover the end of runway 13 and start a close-in downwind leg forrunway 31. Not too close. The closer you are on your downwind,the tighter your turn will have to be as you turn to base andfinal. Of course, for all intents and purposes you can fly anyway that you want to as long as you do not go beyond the airspacethat is protected for the approach, or execute any "aerobaticmaneuvers." The left wing covers up the runway so you dipit down to maintain visual contact. A great move on your part,but the resulting turning moment only takes you closer to therunway. Now the turn to final will have to be a tight one."Where the heck is that darned Cub?" "Speedbirdfive seven golf Oxford. The Cub that was shooting touch-and-goesjust pulled onto the ramp. No other reported traffic." "Thankyou, five seven golf. We'll be turning final for three one shortly."What a nice guy on that Unicom base radio.

You remember what your old instrument instructor used to preachto you. "Just because you're on an instrument approach doesn'tmean that you own the airspace. If the weather is above VFR minimumsit is perfectly legal for someone to be flying in the pattern.And" (and this is where he really got preachy) "thatairplane has just as much right to be there as you do." Atleast in this case the lovely little Cub was on the ground.

The driver was probably standing on the ramp, having a cupof coffee and waiting to see how you- the hot shot IFR flyer-was going to handle the situation.

Aviation's toughest audience- your peers.

You pass the approach end of runway three one on your close-indownwind and drop the gear. The joyous three green lights appear-down and locked. Flaps stay at their existing setting. You increasethe power as your now-too-tight left turn commences. The stallwarning horn sounds briefly and you add more power. The scud onceagain floats across the runway only to go away once more. Nowyou're on a three quarter mile final. Once out of the turn youimmediately dump full flaps and dive for the approach end. Youreach over and pull the power. Fast, but descending rapidly. Toughto judge this one and you land (hit?) firmly. The aircraft bounceson the runway and you become airborne again momentarily beforeyou finish your own touch-and-stop.

You secretly hope that the driver of the Piper Cub chokes onhis coffee.

As you clear the runway you make your final CTAF call out."Oxford traffic, Speedbird five seven golf is on the groundand clear of all runways, Oxford". And, it's always wortha try especially when "big town" airport is fairly close,you switch comms. back to Approach Control. "Approach, fiveseven golf." "Five seven golf, Approach." "We'reon the ground at Oxford." "Roger five seven golf, I'llcancel your IFR at this time. Good day!" "Thank youSir." Heck, you just saved having to put a quarter in thepay phone.

So?

Well, that wasn't so tough was it? Oh yes Grasshopper, thatwas tough. There were a lot of opportunities in the abovesituation where the flight could have been lost. And that's notjust because of our scenario, it applies to all circle-to-landapproaches.

Radio talk

Oh, one last thing before we continue on here. Notice how whenSpeedbird 57G made CTAF radio calls they always began and endedwith "Oxford"? There's a good reason for that. CTAF''sare shared with a lot of airports. Generally ground originatedbroadcasts don't interfere but airborne ones can and often dobecause aviation communications radios are VHF and broadcast line-of-sight.Because there is often a lot of traffic during busy periods yourradio call may be partially blocked by another airborne transmission.By saying the name of your operating airport at the beginningand the end of each call it increases the chances of atleast the airport name coming through without being "steppedon." Just hearing that will perk up the ears of anyone operatingin the airport area. A small edge, but any edge in flying helps.

A short diversion

Once while grinding along enroute and guarding Unicom 122.8for a small airport landing that was coming up, I heard "Ah,Smalltown Unicom Big Airline 123." "Big Airline 123this is Smalltown." "Ah yeah, is Jerry there?""No, he's not working today." "Oh, well we're uphere at flight level three five oh about two hundred miles Eastof you all and just wanted to say 'Hello'."

I'll bet folks in traffic patterns for a five state area lovedthat guy.

"Put a pair of wings on it and I can fly it!"

(Excuse me while I drag my soapbox over here and stand on topof it. There. That's good.)

Sure you can. Heck, you wouldn't be in this flying game ifyou didn't have confidence in yourself and your abilities. Butthere's a fine line- a very fine line- between self-confidenceand arrogance. If you don't believe in yourself you probably willfail. Equally so, if you become over-confident to the point ofarrogance... well, you'll probably fail too. Pilots must constantlybalance these basic emotions.

It is not easy.

Those that don't often wrap themselves in a balled-up massof aluminum that used to be an airplane.

Sometimes they kill innocent people that trusted them.

Not long ago, in Northern Minnesota, a King Air on a circle-to-landapproach ended up as a smoking ball of aluminum. The approachstarted off as a straight-in, but for reasons that we will neverknow the pilot passed on the straight-in and started to circlethe airport. Post crash analysis showed that the powerplants wereoperational. Instead of executing a go-around and a Missed Approachthe pilot continued around the airport perimeter. Perhaps he wasgoing to land on another of the field's runways. Radar data showedthat he had slowed the King Air down to minimal maneuvering airspeed.Maybe he saw the airport and turned in towards it. When he madethe turn, the aircraft stalled and dropped into the trees nose-down.Everyone died, including the United States Senator, his familyand some of his staff that placed their trust in the guy sittingin the left front seat.

In all fairness, initial findings show that there may havebeen another major factor in this accident.

The pilot had a lot of "P-51 time."

OK, I'm showing my age here but it's an oft-used aviation phrase.Back before ball point pens were common folks used fountain pens.One of the best ones was made by the Parker Pen Company and wasnamed the "Parker model P-51." If a pilot was known(or suspected) of filling out hours not actually flown in hislogbook, it was said that he "...had a lot of P-51 time."Apparently the KingAir pilot had it in spades.

What does this mean to you?

It means that there are areas of flying airplanes that youshouldn't go if you don't have the experience and confidence inthat experience. Hell, even front line airline pilots have higherminimums on approaches until they are certified by their carriersfor the route. Just because you can fly doesn't mean that youcan do everything. Respect your limitations.

And respect those things in aviation that demand your best.

Circle-to-land approaches are one of those things.

I will now climb back down off of my soapbox. Thank you forlistening.

OK. What should one watch out for on a circiling approach?

- Airspeed

You will have the aircraft slowed down so that you are in a"landing position." This means that you will be at aminimum airspeed. Keep in mind that when an aircraft turns thestall speed increases. Thus, you may be ready for yourturn to final and find yourself in a non-flying airplane whenyou make the bank.

- Altitude

You're low. If you do stall your chances of recovery are minimalat best. Keep up as much airspeed as possible and still be ableto slow down for landing.

- Things that go bump

Circle-to-land procedures almost always have higher minimumsthan any other type of approach. That's because there are objectsout there that you can run into. My old instrument instructorwas widely regarded as one of the best, yet he somehow found thehighest real estate in the State of Nebraska and bought it.

Making a circle-to-land approach.

- Down and dirty

Usually the aircraft is in a "down and dirty" condition:flaps and gear are both down. If you do need to execute a missedapproach you need to literally "get the hell out of there!"Airports are laid out so that there are no obstructions in therunway corridor. If there are going to be buildings, antenna farms,hills etc. guess where they will be? Right. In that area whereyou are circiling around in your airplane. When you firewall itto get out of Dodge there's a whole lot more ground clutter (usually)than there is on an ILS Missed Approach procedure. Having theairplane dirtier than necessary will slow your climb rate. Tryto hold off lowering the landing gear and the balance of landingflaps until you know that you can make the runway.

- Land downwind

What the heck, why not? If the landing authority (the towerfor example) will authorize it, or if in your judgement it issafe and doable, then land downwind and forget the circiling altogether.Sure it's a little tough on the tires, and maybe the brakes, butif the runway is long enough it certainly beats being out thererummaging around in the muck.

- Keep the runway on your side

Always try to have the airport and the runway on the left sideof the airplane. This way as you turn the wing is not coveringup what you need to see. Remember that if you lose sight of therunway you have to make a Missed Approach.

- Missed Approach

Remember that if you lose visual contact with the runway youhave to go Missed Approach. Here's another thing to think about:on other types of instrument approaches there is a dedicated MissedPoint. That's not true with a circle-to-land approach. You couldbe most anywhere around the runway and heading in most any olddirection when you are forced to give it up and go Missed. Forthat reason the Missed Approach procedures are almost always universalin requiring a climb and a turn to a heading. Have the MissedApproach procedure nailed in your mind, it's not the time foryou to have your head down trying to read the small print,.

- Do what the military does

While not used as much as it used to be, the "overhead360 approach" is a natural for landing the airplane on circle-to-landapproaches. Rather than flying a tight pattern and getting lowerfor the landing, fly as high as practical and right toward therunway that you are going to land on. Maneuver such that you canapproach the end of the runway with it off to your left and youcan see it out the windshield.

As you cross abeam of the runway end start a 360 degree descendingturn. Make the turn with as shallow a bank as possible. Drop gearand flaps during the turn, adding additional landing flaps asyou near the end of the runway. You will straighten out to a wingslevel attitude just shortly before you touch down.

Practice these procedures in good weather with good visibility.Practice does make perfect. Well, perfection and flying airplanesseldom go hand in hand, truth be known. But don't, don't ever,ever get low and slow on a circle-to-land approach.

It can seriously hurt you.

Fly safely.

Hal Stoen

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This tutorial written after a suggestion by Charly Playe.

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