Five Lines of Minimums

There are some things that you never expect to see together, and they surprise you when used in the same context: West Texas referred to as alpine, Donald Trumps name beside front runner, and hashtags on approach charts, I cant explain that second one, but the first and last make sense when digging into the RNAV (GPS) Rwy 19 approach at E38, a.k.a. Alpine, Texas.

jwanwest

Wednesday, January 13, 2016 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The Alpine, TX (E38) airport, despite its name, is at a high elevation with challenging terrain, sloped runways, and high true airspeeds that demand careful landing performance consideration.
The RNAV (GPS) Rwy 19 approach chart uses unique '#' and '*' symbols to correlate LNAV and LP approach minimums with specific, often higher-than-standard, missed approach climb requirements.
These varying minimums and demanding climb gradients are necessitated by significant obstacles near the runway, further indicated by the lack of LPV and VDP on the approach chart.

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There are some things that you never expect to see together, and they surprise you when used in the same context: West Texas referred to as “alpine,” Donald Trump’s name beside “front runner,” and hashtags on approach charts, I can’t explain that second one, but the first and last make sense when digging into the RNAV (GPS) Rwy 19 approach at E38, a.k.a. Alpine, Texas.

Not an Everyday Approach

Let’s start with the alpine bit: While the hills around Alpine out in West Texas wouldn’t inspire Julie Andrews to song, they do put the airport at just over 4500 feet MSL, and peaks within 15 miles of the field cross 6500 feet. In addition, the approach chart MSA circle—You do brief that part, too, right?—is uniform with 9100 feet all around. All this should be a good reminder not to make assumptions about the terrain below those clouds.