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Hiding in Plain Sight

After you fly enough approaches, they all start looking pretty similar. Is that your brain working for or against you? Or both?

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Pilots can develop cognitive biases and complacency from familiar approaches, leading them to overlook subtle yet critical differences in non-standard procedures.
  • The Gunnison GPS-B approach exemplifies how seemingly standard procedures can hide crucial details, such as circling-only minimums due to an excessively steep descent angle, leading to unsafe straight-in attempts.
  • In complex airspaces like Teterboro, subtle chart details like mandatory altitudes or speed restrictions are critical for traffic deconfliction but are easily missed if not actively identified.
  • To counteract these biases and avoid complacency, pilots should proactively identify unique details during approach briefings, treating them like "spot the difference" puzzles rather than assuming typical characteristics.
See a mistake? Contact us.

We recently heard an eye-opening tale of an approach into Gunnison, Colorado (KGUC), in which a jet crew flew the GPS-B approach in instrument conditions with a planned landing into the wind on Runway 24, but found themselves unexpectedly struggling with the approach. At first glance the approach looked to the crew to be a fairly typical non-precision RNAV approach, but what do you think? Pause here and see if you catch any subtle warning flags before continuing. 

We know that every instrument procedure must be unique, since the specifics of the airport, traffic flow, and obstacle environment are all unique. However, in practice many of the approaches appear similar at first glance—and many times they are indeed more similar than different. 

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