Interesting Approach Plate

[Steven Winslow]

I came across this on FlightAware. Kind of an interesting note on this approach plate. I've got to go take a look and see just how challenging this approach is:

PAIM NDB RWY24.jpg (120.33 KiB) Viewed 2407 times

[Alex Stjepanovic]

I don't know a tonne about IFR, but considering the area, I'd say that that doesn't seem too out of place. It's an instrument approach after all.

The way I interpret what they are saying is: If you wanna go missed, go missed at the point provided for that. If however you decide to play around with the tricky area and conditions that you as a pilot should not have a reason to not have been briefed on as part of the flight planning(Check the other caveats), then it's your own $(*#!:@ problem

[DrZGard]

A perfect example to understand the difference between a DA (decision altitude), DH (decision height), MDA (minimum descent altitude) and MAP (missed approach point). Wiki actually had a very well worded explanation:

Decision height or altitude
A decision height (DH) or decision altitude (DA) is a specified height or altitude in the precision approach at which a missed approach must be initiated if the required visual reference, such as the runway or runway environment, to continue the approach has not been acquired. This allows the pilot sufficient time to safely re-configure the aircraft to climb and execute the missed approach procedures while avoiding terrain and obstacles.
[edit]Minimum descent altitude
The minimum descent altitude (MDA) is the lowest altitude (in feet MSL) to which descent is authorized on final approach, or during circle-to-land maneuvering in execution of a non-precision approach.[4] Unlike a DH, a missed approach need not be initiated immediately upon reaching the altitude; that decision can be made at any time before reaching the missed approach point (MAP). A pilot flying a non-precision approach may descend to the MDA and maintain it until reaching the MAP, then initiate a missed approach if the required visual reference was not obtained. An aircraft must not descend below the MDA until visual reference is obtained, which differs slightly from a DH in that while the missed approach procedure must be initiated at or prior to the DH, because of its vertical momentum, during a precision approach an aircraft may end up descending slightly below the DH during the course of the missed approach.
If a runway has both precision and non-precision approaches defined, the MDA of the non-precision approach is almost always greater than the DH of the precision approach, due to the lack of vertical guidance of the non-precision approach: the actual difference will also depend on the accuracy of the navaid upon which the approach is based, with ADF approaches and SRAs tending to have the highest MDAs.