Martinsville Approach

In article , wrote:

We need to learn what intervention, if any, on the part of ATC. Perhaps a
vector?

Good question. I don't know the area, but they may not have had radar
service available. I know when we go into KSLK (Saranac Lake, NY),
Boston center tells us radar service is terminated, and we're going
stricly by navaids. No radar vectors available because of the
mountains; we have to do the full procedure. Perhaps this airport's
the same; I don't know.

--
Garner R. Miller
ATP/CFII/MEI
Clifton Park, NY =USA=

Garner Miller wrote:
: Good question. I don't know the area, but they may not have had radar
: service available. I know when we go into KSLK (Saranac Lake, NY),
: Boston center tells us radar service is terminated, and we're going
: stricly by navaids. No radar vectors available because of the
: mountains; we have to do the full procedure. Perhaps this airport's
: the same; I don't know.

It most likely is. A number of approaches in this area (like my home base)
are negative radar below 5000' MSA because of the mountains. Greensboro might have
had them from the flatlands there, but we'll have to wait and see.

--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

Garner Miller wrote:

In article , wrote:

We need to learn what intervention, if any, on the part of ATC. Perhaps a
vector?

Good question. I don't know the area, but they may not have had radar
service available. I know when we go into KSLK (Saranac Lake, NY),
Boston center tells us radar service is terminated, and we're going
stricly by navaids. No radar vectors available because of the
mountains; we have to do the full procedure. Perhaps this airport's
the same; I don't know.


I've seen the Greensboro TRACON MVA chart. The MVA over the airport is 3600.
To the west and northwest it is 4400; except for a circle around the Bull
Mountain area where the MVA is 5200. It's 31 miles from the ASR antenna to
KMTV.

So, I doubt they can see them down low but probably 2,000 feet, or so, above
field elevation. That would be good enough for limited vectoring but it
wouldn't seem good enough for a departure or missed approach vector.

If this were a major airline accident we would probably already know a lot about
the ATC handling. But, like any government agency, the NTSB doesn't talk during
an investigation unless politics force them to.