Circle to land question

On Sat, 14 May 2005 16:05:26 -0500, A Lieberman
wrote:

On Sat, 14 May 2005 13:28:40 -0400, Ron Rosenfeld wrote:

My preference on a circling approach is to always fly a left hand pattern.
If there is some safety reason to execute a right hand pattern (or if the
airport has right traffic), then I will fly a right hand pattern.

Hi Ron,

I really appreciate your input. Let me ask you this question as I really
learn from others....

Seeing how the VOR Alpha approach leads you into the airport, and if you
reached midfield at minimums, how would you execute the landing for runway
35 if you don't execute a right hand pattern?

There are no noise sensitive areas, nor any unusual considerations around
MBO.

Allen

It's good that you describe a specific approach, because all of these sorts
of questions depend critically on the approach one is flying.

For the KMBO VOR-A approach, the missed approach point is at MAFCA which is
west of the runway. When I reached MAFCA, if I had the field in sight, the
runway would be ahead of me, and crossing my flight path. So I would turn
right to enter the left downwind, and fly a normal left handed pattern.
If, at MAFCA, I did not have the runway in sight, I would be executing a
missed approach.

In addition to the above considerations, there is also the fact that the
minimum visibility for this approach (for a Category A a/c) is one mile.
MAFCA is only 1000' from the runway. If I do not pick up the runway prior
to MAFCA, it is likely I will not have the required visibility to make the
approach. (Not definite, as there could be an obstruction to visibility
that clears up directly over the airport). So it is likely that if I just
barely see the airport upon reaching the MAP, I'll have to execute a "miss"
anyway.


Ron (EPM) (N5843Q, Mooney M20E) (CP, ASEL, ASES, IA)