If you remember which side of a localizer is “blue” and which is “yellow,” you’re either a historian or a true pelican. You also have an edge when it comes to certain oddball approaches.
Our feathered friends
Some approaches achieve a certain celebrity status by nature of their difficulty or mind-bending design. Such is the famous (some say infamous) LOC/DME-E into Aspen, Colo. It leverages two different localizers to give you at least a remote chance of slipping down between the mountains and seeing the runway, or slipping back up between the mountains to tell the tale if you dont.
Key Takeaways:
- The Aspen LOC/DME-E approach is a complex procedure using two localizers, with the second specifically for a terrain-critical missed approach.
- Despite being a backcourse, the missed approach localizer is designed for normal sensing when flown outbound, which is crucial due to the challenging terrain.
- Pilots using an HSI for this specific missed approach should set the outbound course to maintain normal sensing and avoid confusion.
- The approach emphasizes the importance of traditional navigation knowledge ("old-school savvy") even with modern GPS, as highlighted by a past GPS autoslew anomaly.
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