Stuck with a Visual

Elaine Kauh

Sunday, August 14, 2022 at 08:14 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Successful flight to a challenging, mountainous airport (I35) with legacy aircraft requires meticulous pre-flight planning, including waiting for optimal VFR weather and utilizing available navigation tools (like a tablet GPS referencing an RNAV-A) for obstacle avoidance.
The article highlights the complexities of approaches to I35, such as its steep RNAV-A procedure which is technically a circling approach with restrictions (e.g., no circling north), and notes on mountainous terrain and runway obstacles.
A key takeaway is to treat visual approaches with the same rigor as instrument procedures, developing detailed go-around plans, considering ATC interactions, and identifying alternates, especially when flying into unfamiliar or demanding environments.

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Flying a reliable but legacy-equipped airplane, you’re looking for a way to make it into Tucker-Guthrie Memorial Airport, Harlan, Kentucky, (I35) with an IFR flight plan ending with a visual approach, or just VFR. It’s a long way from home in the flatlands of central Illinois—a one state to the southeast—but a 50-gallon getaway is kinda the point of this trip. And so, a couple of strategies can make it work. Start with better weather, and then plan the arrival.

Weather Delay