SFO FMS 28R Approach

[julio.elizalde]

Hi Folks,

As a newbie, I thought I'd share this tip for those of you interested in flying a RW approach with your FMC's (especially you PMDG fanatics).

RW San Francisco uses a specialized RNAV/Visual approach called the FMS Bridge Visual 28R Approach with their valued customers that use the MOD3 regularly throughout the day. This avoids pilots being dependent on the SFO VOR for the Quiet Bridge Visual Approach. For example, this week the ILS rwy 28L was out of service, and Norcal Approach had to assign standard visual approaches in place of the TIPP TOE Visual Approach with turns to final over the shoreline to compensate.

Although the approach is considered an airline specific approach (Virgin America, jetBlue, American, Delta, United, Southwest are the common users), we can use it too! The main fixes are built along radial/distances from the SFO VOR, but in RW FMC's they use coordinates (hence the airline specific only use). Here are the RNAV fixes and their radial/dist and altitude restriction from the SFO VOR:

ARCHI SFO-092/25 DME - 8000A
TRDOW SFO-095/19 DME - 6000A
GAROW SFO-095/15 DME - 4000A
SAMUL SFO-095/7 DME - 1800A
F101D SFO-101/4.4 - FMC calculated to Runway

These can easily be entered into an FMC using the SFO092/25 format for PMDG. Generally ARCHI is the first fix after CEDES on the MOD3 arrival (Although, a controller may descend an aircraft through the bravo on the final approach course, and give a clearance further along from any of the other fixes).

Generally speaking, controllers that receive aircraft descending for 11,000 at CEDES instruct aircraft to "proceed direct ARCHI, join the FMS Bridge Visual Runway 28R final approach course. Maintain 11,000." They are descended to 8000 to remain in the first shelf of the SFO Bravo and then handed to the final approach controller. The final approach controller usually simply says "Report a bridge or field in sight." Once the pilot calls it, the controller clears the aircraft for the approach. From the controllers point of view, the extra fixes in this approach compared to the Quiet Bridge approach make it easier for assigning speeds through the approach ("maintain 210 kts until GAROW). Flow control wise, the approach immediately builds in the correct displaced approach angle against the TIPP TOE Approaches to Rwy 28L, further facilitating visual separation on the parallel arrivals. This is one of the reasons why SFO suffers so greatly from reduced visibility given the 500 ft separation between runways at touch down.

This is quite a fun approach to sit back and enjoy as your plane gently descends over the bay and you take over once the aircraft turns final. I hope some of you will enjoy getting into the extreme realism provided by this approach!!

-Julio Elizalde