Circling, And Missing

Runway layouts can make it easy to get confused or forget the missed approach course when circling to land.

Saturday, December 16, 2023 at 08:00 AM ET

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There's an airport out there somewhere in the haze, but the runway layout can be confusing when there are multiple choices, offsets, parallels and intersections.

Key Takeaways:

Executing a missed approach from a circling maneuver is significantly more complex and less intuitive than from a straight-in approach, often leading to confusion among even experienced pilots and instructors.
When going missed during a circling approach, the pilot must first climb and turn toward the intended *landing runway* (not necessarily the runway of the instrument procedure) before intercepting the missed approach course for the *original instrument approach*.
Circling approaches, particularly the missed approach segment, demand extensive pre-flight planning, detailed study of airport diagrams, and consistent practice due to the shift from instrument to visual maneuvering and less precise ATC instructions.

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Tell me how to go missed from a circling approach,” the designated pilot examiner (DPE) asked the pilot during the oral portion of their checkride. The applicant didn’t know the answer, so the frustrated DPE asked a CFI standing nearby, who worked at the flight school, and got the same answer: “Huh?”

After the increasingly frustrated DPE asked the third unlucky nearby pilot, also a CFI, who said he didn’t know either, the DPE got angry that no one in the whole wide world seemed to know how to execute a missed approach while circling to land.