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

Verified

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 complex and frequently misunderstood, differing significantly from a straight-in missed approach.
The procedure for a circling missed approach involves climbing, turning towards the intended landing runway, and then intercepting the missed approach course for the *original* instrument procedure.
Circling approaches require extensive pre-planning, detailed knowledge of airport diagrams, and practice due to their visual nature, non-standard ATC instructions, and the need to transition effectively from instrument flight to visual maneuvering for a different runway.

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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.