After a three-day trip to the Denver area mixing business and recreation, you’re heading eastbound for home with a stop in Medford, Oklahoma, to visit a friend. Medford Muni (Oscar-53) doesn’t seem to have much to it, though, so you review the logistics to confirm it’ll work for an overnight. One runway at 3007 feet? No problem. Plenty long for your personal aircraft in mild spring weather. One RNAV approach for each end? No problem. Flying in from the west? Of course the direction you’re coming from shouldn’t matter. But both IAPs are laid out with initial fixes on the east side of Medford and you’re coming from the other side. So you’ll need to plan out any potential maneuvering required to fly the full procedure, just in case…
Getting There
Mostly, though, it’s a straightforward flight. Routing in the second half picks up V74 to get in the vicinity of Medford and remain outside of the military operations area as long as possible. Approaches to Medford’s Runway 17/35 consist of one LNAV procedure per side, each with a single base-to-final leg from the east. The plan views, when compared, are nearly mirror images, both with a missed approach/hold at FIRET. The approaches even have the same minimums: LNAV MDA is 1680 and circling is 1740. Plan on Runway 17 for southerly winds in the forecast.
