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Chapter 12 - Approach Chart Analysis 12-13

becomes a circling approach,
which is also a non-precision Circling Approach
approach because it doesn’t
require use of the glideslope. If Minimums
you fit into the Category A mini-
mum section (Figure 19, position
A), then you descend to an
MDA of 880 feet and now need
1 sm of in-flight visibility for this
approach.
More than likely, you’ll hear
the approach controller provide
the circle-to-land instructions
long before you reach the FAF,
but it’s possible to hear a con- A
troller issue this instruction when
you’re inside the FAF (although
this would be bad form and might
confuse a pilot in much the same
way my dad used to confuse me as Fig. 19
a kid when he told me to pick up
case of Long Beach above, the circling MDA is 880 feet and the required flight visibility is
my feet when I walked. How can Below the ILS minimums you’ll find the circling approach minimums (position A). In the
you do that without tipping over?).
one statute mile.
Most of the time ATC will let
you know that pilots are circling to
land before you even begin the approach. It’s never-
theless possible (although very unlikely) to be cleared
for the ILS Runway 30 approach and have just begun
your descent on the glideslope when you hear that
you are cleared to circle to land north of the airport
on Runway 25 right. If so, this is no longer a precision
approach because you’re no longer flying the glides-
lope down to a DA.
Instead, you would descend to the circling MDA of
880 feet, level off, and fly to the MAP (or you could
descend on the glideslope and level off at the MDA.
It’s not necessary to stay on the glideslope now, since
you’re descending to an MDA). As a matter of prac-
tice, always start timing as you cross the FAF on a
precision (ILS) approach. That way, if you are asked
to circle you’ll have a time reference established and
can transition safely to the circling MDA.
What’s circling to land all about? The typical rea-
son pilots are instructed to circle to land is that the
airport’s active runway doesn’t have its own instru-
ment approach. In other words, a wind shift may
require the controller to change the landing runway.
In the case of Long Beach, if the active runway is 30
and the wind shifts in favor of Runway 12, there’s a
problem because there is no approach to Runway 12.
Some airports have approaches to alternate runways.
Long Beach doesn’t. So the only way you’re going to
get there is to perform the maneuver known as circle
to land. For those under the impression this involves
something with a compass and a protractor, let’s talk
a bit more.
How do you circle to land? Well, you often have a lot
of discretion, and no guidance (at least none of the
electronic kind). A circling approach is IFR improv in