IFR circle to land

[Maj.BLOOD]

Circle to land? I flew a Tower en-rout flight from KFUL to KCNO and was given Instructions for the 26L approach and circle to land runway 8R. I understand this is a perfectly legitimate procedure but I had never even heard of it until this flight. Hope someone can give me some in-site on this or where to look for more information. I'm not finding much.

[Brandon Grchan]

5-4-20-1 of the AIM explains the protected circling area


Also chapter 5 page 7 of the instrument handbook. http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals/avia ... /CH-05.pdf

[Keith Smith]

Blood,

Check out the procedures at SMO and AVX. You'll notice the procedures are lacking runway numbers entirely and just end with 'A', 'B', etc. These are circling approaches where either the descent gradient on the final approach segment exceeds a certain threshold (such as the approach at SMO), or the final approach segment is not within 30 degs of the extended centerline of the runway.

Circling approaches are introduced in the I-7 rating of the PilotEdge Training Program. That's just another great reason to be working on those ratings. They'll set you up with what you need to know to fly IFR on the network if you're not already undertaking a formal instrument training program.

[Maj.BLOOD]

Thanks everyone for the info. I haven't gotten that far in the I-ratings and just started my formal training this week.