Tight Circle

Circling an airport after an instrument approach procedure (IAP) to land on a runway other than the one aligned with the IAP is something all instrument-rated pilots have practiced. Its a maneuver that places an airplane relatively close to the ground-sometimes at half the traffic-pattern altitude-and can require steeply banked turns.

Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Tuesday, July 21, 2015 at 12:00 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

Circle-to-land maneuvers are inherently dangerous due to low altitudes, steep turns that increase stall speed, and reduced margins for error, especially in challenging weather conditions.
The article highlights a fatal accident where a pilot executing a circle-to-land procedure stalled at low altitude while making an aggressively banked turn in and out of clouds.
The NTSB determined the probable cause of the accident was the pilot's failure to maintain airspeed during aggressive banking in gusty conditions, leading to an aerodynamic stall and uncontrolled descent.
To enhance safety, pilots should widen their traffic patterns to avoid steep turns, maintain instrument awareness when visual references are lost, and execute a missed approach rather than attempting risky maneuvers at low altitude.

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Circling an airport after an instrument approach procedure (IAP) to land on a runway other than the one aligned with the IAP is something all instrument-rated pilots have practiced. It’s a maneuver that places an airplane relatively close to the ground—sometimes at half the traffic-pattern altitude—and can require steeply banked turns.

Of course, steep banks close to the ground are an invitation for a stall-spin accident when the vertical lift component is traded for the horizontal. Since circling is usually performed in poor weather, it can be a busy time: In addition to keeping the airport and intended runway in sight, pilots must also maneuver the airplane at a relatively low speed. Of course, slow airspeeds, steep banks and low altitudes are the recipe for fatal stall-spin accidents. There just isn’t enough altitude to recover.