I got back a couple of weeks ago from a golf tournament in oregon on an Alaskan Super 80. That approach into KSAN is so hard when its dark and the june glooms blankets the coast. Visibilty was around 1000 feet, so it wasn't as bad as ive seen it before. What im asking is when the visbility lowers even more and obviously there is no ILS into KSAN Runway 27, is this one of the hardest approaches in the US? Especially coming in over the Parking Garage. Haha. If not i was hoping to find out what is.Thanks Jamie L

Flying the River visual to Rwy 19 at KDCA would rank quite high I believe. Don't know if it's the "hardest" though since I'm from Europe =)

wow that was quick, i appreciate the reply. Im looking forward for some more. Jamie L

San Diego is considered one of the toughest approaches because of the steep glide angle from the East. Contributing to the steepness of the glide, if you are on a visual approach you can't even desend below 5000 ft. until you cross south of the MBZ 084 radial because the normal visual approach takes you directly over Montgomery's airspace (KMYF). Well, you don't cross the MBZ 084 radial until you are already in the base leg so you only have about 8 miles to loose 5000 ft.When the visibility does get too low they have to switch around to RNY 9 which does have an ILS. And because of the "Catalina Eddy's" the marine layer frequently gets shoved right into the airport area while the rest of San Diego has clear skys.Also the parking garage is skewed to the right in the MSFS scenery. It's actually right on the centerline and when British Airways used to operate a 747-400 into San Diego the landing gear only missed that parking garage by 200 ft.Sskoup

The LOC 27 at KSAN reminds me of the LOC/DME 28 at KMRY (Monterey) in my home region. Lots of step-downs on a steep glideslope. Compounding the tough approach is that ATC has to manually switch the localizer between the ILS 10 and the LOC/DME 28 frequencies, and controllers will sometimes forget and clear you for one approach when the beam is set for the other--which is another good reason always to check the identifier of any navaid you intend to use. Of course, that's not a problem in MSFS, but it's still a tough approach.For sheer complexity of procedure, however, I think the LOC/DME BC 16 at KRDD (Redding) has to be one of the toughest in California.Sincerely,Rob Prattrpratt(at-sign)wordandsound.com

Regarding the parking garage - just an item of interest. I know the original builder/owner of the building. When discussing the controversial position he used to say that any aircraft that hit the building wasn't going to make the runway anyway, ie. too low. Also he said that he allowed pilots to park their cars on top of the building for free and they were not going to crash into all those Mercedes and Porches'. I was on Habor Island yesterday and as we were leaving about 1:30 PM we saw a Southwest 737 abort landing on 27. He pulled right turn just about at entry point of strip. No information on why or what but it is something I have not seen many of - been here for 75 years!

Hi,You've been lucky. I have been on a WN 737 that aborted and went around at KSAN, and another day I was waiting for my flight and it missed it's landing, making us 20 minutes late taking off! KSAN has one of the higher missed approach rates in the country.Take care,--Tom GibsonCal Classic Propliner Page: http://www.calclassic.comFreeflight Design Shop: http://www.freeflightdesign.comDrop by! ___x_x_(")_x_x___

A year or two ago, I was on an American Eagle Saab 340 from KLAX. The overcast extended East quite a ways. Our first approach was to the LOC 27, and we got to DH without seeing the ground, so the captain poured on the power and we hiked back out of the soup.On our second approach, the LOC 27 again, the captain explained that visibility was spotty and that the plane behind us on the first pass had gotten down okay. Once again, we got down to DH before aborting the approach...we could see the field lights below us as we went over.This time, though, ATC vectored us out to hold for 30 minutes while they switched the direction of the traffic. It doesn't take that long, I would imagine, but the captain announced that we were number one for entry to the ILS 9 approach, then headed us back to the hold while another airplane got the go ahead after declaring a low fuel state.Finally, we got the go ahead, and the rest of the flight was uneventful...a nice landing "the wrong way" into KSAN.Yoda

To me the Right Way into KSAN would be R9, it would eliminate a lot of noise complaints. Ive flown into LAX many times, and every time they landed from over the ocean... Having an ILS to use would eliminate all the go arounds.

Hi,But that means takeoffs over downtown (Rwy 9), which would annoy lots more people than takeoffs over Point Loma (Rwy 27). If we tried to use LAX's "land over the ocean, takeoff over the ocean strategy" (on different runways) with our single runway, flight operations would be slowed to a crawl!!Hope this helps,

Guess they need to build a second runway at KSAN ;-)As I live under the flight path of KFUL, and love to hear aircraft taking off, even getting up to stand on the porch to watch them, never thought about that. Unfortunately since 911, departures have been drastically reduced. Lots of pilots moved their aircraft to GA fields further from LAX, probably to avoid all the FAA changes in the area. Used to be on a Sat morning, there'd be aircraft overhead almost once a minute, from 9:30 to at least 1 or 2pm.... Now there are maybe 3-5 flights Sat mornings.Now, some spotters will be complaing to their Kids, "In the Olden days, we used to see lots of planes,"