Flight-planning your Washingtonstate mini-vacation taught you a lot about identifying obstacles on approach. Overall, IFR into Deer Park won’t be too onerous for terrain or procedures. But it does mean unseen obstructions—some close to the final approach path (see “Obstacle Hunt” in last month’s IFR). It took time to piece together the details using all the charts and airport notes you could find. But now there’s still the rest of the RNAV 16 approach to brief.
Missed Approach Obstacles
The published missed is typical: “Climb to 3500 then climbing left turn to 5700 direct CABGO and hold.” But there are, best you can tell, three sets of obstacles (man-made towers) close to the airport. One, just west of the departure end of Runway 16, appears to be less than 10 feet high, and early on in the approach briefing you saw the obstacle symbol on the plan view. The other close-in obstacle, just east of the south end of Runway 16, appears only on the airport sketch, so you hadn’t spotted it until now. It shows an elevation of 2291± feet, meaning the elevation accuracy is “doubtful.”
