Hello NGX Captains,

 

I see this in my IAP charts and also in the fuel planning thread in Brman2006's post (within the picture of the excel spreadsheet in the NGX fuel planning thread). Would someone be so kind as to explain to me what exactly this means in terms of arriving at one's destination. Does this happen when you arrive at your destination, winds have switched so you overfly and circle backaround to land on the opposite end of the runway?

 

Ed

Fly Tutorial 2, which has the definitive Circle To Land approach for Rwy8 - I can't think of a better practical explanation.

 

Also, it's a great tutorial :)

Follow Paul's suggestion.

 

In short, a circle to land procedure is used where the approach guidance brings you in offset from the extended runway line by more than 30* (more than 15* if RNav), or if a rapid descent rate would be required in the final segment. With terrain obstructions, offset approaches and/or steep final segments are common.

 

A CTL can also be if you land on a runway different from the runway that you flew the approach for. A circle to land is not necessarily to another runway, but it can be.

 

An example of the latter, is flying the approach to say ILS23, but landing on runway 5, because there is no ILS on rwy 5 but there is a low ceiling, and the winds are strongly from the SW. You use the ILS23 to get below the ceiling, then with the airport environment in sight you CTL to Rwy 5. Also there is the classic example of KMDW, ILS 31C, CTL Rwy 22L. This is due to new building in the downtown Chicago area putting the ILS 22L out of action.

 

A Circle to Land procedure with low ceilings and vis, is potentially the most dangerous approach to fly. Most airline SOPs forbid them.

 

Happiy RNP RNav approaches are getting planes into many runways, that were tricky to reach otherwise.

 

* Orest

Thank you very much guys for your input on the CTL. It really sheds light on it for me. I've muddled my way through Tutorial 2 a couple of times now, but usually by the time I had Innsbruck runway in sight I was so far behind the airplane that I just headed for the nearest PAPIs. I definitely need to do it a few more times yet as it looks like I've still got a lot to learn from it:-) There is so much information packed into that tutorial that it's hard to absorb over a short period of time. Great work by Ryan.Thanks again.

 

Ed

Circle-to-land procedures make great practice (combine it with a touch and go and you're in for some fun), but you need some guidelines.

 

This one From Ryanair is a good one for me.

 

http://www.smartcockpit.com/pdf/plane/boeing/B737/diagrams/0010/

 

Take out your chronometer! The timing bit is crucial.

Don't forget to set a circle of 1.6 nm around the runway, that's your aiming point for the downwind leg (althoug, you might set it a bit larger to start with).

Start at 1500'. When you got it nailed, fly it lower and lower...

 

 

Bert Van Bulck

Thanks Bert. Nice site. Will practise this one also.

 

 

Ed