Blast from the Past

Approaches like the KOWD LOC RWY 35 were once common, but they’re almost retro today. Nonetheless, they still exist and we should know how to fly them.

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Thursday, January 16, 2025 at 05:00 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

The Norwood Memorial Airport's LOC RWY 35 is a "retro approach" due to its reliance on traditional Outer Marker (OM) and Locator Outer Marker (LOM) for the Final Approach Fix and Minimum Safe Altitudes, despite these ground-based aids being largely supplanted by GPS.
Pilots flying this approach must use specific equipment like ADF or DME (or GPS as a substitute) and navigate detailed procedures, including a step-down fix and a complex missed approach involving immediate climbing turns.
The article contrasts this with the modern RNAV (GPS) RWY 35 approach, which offers lower minimums with WAAS, and also addresses chart ambiguities such as the WHYBE fix and conflicting Minimum Enroute Altitudes (MEAs) on hybrid airways, clarified by the FAA.

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Norwood Memorial Airport (KOWD) is a public airport in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, approximately 15 miles southwest of Boston Logan International Airport. The Boston Class B starts at 3000 feet MSL over Norwood.

From 1942 to 1945, Norwood served as a Naval Outlying Landing Field of Naval Air Station Squantum. (The NAS closed in 1953.) This historical significance as a training field for aspiring naval aviators with its two 4000-foot runways, is a testament to its rich past. A year after the end of the Second World War, the U.S. Department of War gave the airport to the town of Norwood, which renamed it Norwood Memorial Airport in memory of Norwood residents killed during WWII.