With the coming of GPS, my home base, Somerset Airport (SMQ) in New Jersey, now has three instrument approaches. Not bad for a field with one paved 2,700-foot runway and a pair of grass strips. The legacy approach is a VOR non-precision procedure using the Solberg VOR, 4.2 nautical miles away. It’s a bit unusual in that it is published as a straight-in approach to one of the airport’s turf runways, but everyone treats it more as a VOR-A procedure with a circle to land on the paved strip. Now that we’ve reached the 21st century, there are also two RNAV approaches — one for each end of the paved Runway 12-30.
When I return from a trip, or when I just go out to exercise the airplane, I’ll usually fly one of the approach procedures, even in CAVU conditions. The VOR approach is often convenient when arriving from the south or west, but the RNAV 12 Approach is the one that I try to make sure I’m well acquainted with. That’s because if the weather were to ever present really low IFR, chances are that the winds will favor Runway 12. Also, the terrain rises relatively steeply not far from the arrival end of Runway 30 (for New Jersey, anyway. You pilots ‘Out West’ can stop laughing now.) In reality, of course, the first choice would be to divert to one of the nearby airports with an ILS and call a cab.
