Looking for particular approaches (like NDB)

[NM Doug]

Are there any NDB approaches in the Socal region? I thought I had found one a while back, but I've forgotten where.

And that brings up another question: I'm wondering if there might be some interest in starting a list of airports/approaches with particular characteristics - e.g. where to practice low pattern work (< 1000AGL), where to find an approach where the final approach course is a DME arc, approaches with unusual missed approach procedures, etc. (Or does a public list exist somewhere already?)

Thanks for any ideas -
Doug

[Jason Baxter]

KSBD, KEMT, KSLI, L67. Now's a good time for actual, the weather is staying low and tight so you'll have real instrument conditions.

[NM Doug]

Thanks for the list, Jason - did you just know those from experience, or did you look them up somehow? I'm at work now, so I can't join in the current IMC, but sometime soon I hope.

[Daddy O]

If you use www.skyvector.com they not only give you a flight planning interface, but have a really great airport directory. When you go to an airport's page, down at the bottom they list all of the approach, departure, and landing charts (and the airport map is up at the top of the page.) Lookup the focus fields for the day (on the pilotedge homepage) and check skyvector to see what kind of approaches are available.

You don;t have to use the focus airports if you don;t want to, you will just tend to encounter more live traffic at the focus airports.

[NM Doug]

Thanks for the suggestions - I'm actually interested in the search process the other way around...let me try to explain a little better.

Because real world pilots are generally heading to a particular airport, or to an airport in a particular region (i.e. "I want to end up near Burbank, even if I don't fly into Burbank itself"), most search systems are set up around the process 1. pick an airport, then 2. see what the airport has. The A/FD works that way, as does ForeFlight, skyvector, etc.

In PE, I can start at any airport I want, and I'm most frequently looking for a particular 'experience' (for practice/training/learning), regardless of the starting or landing airports. As I write this and think about it, I guess I'm describing a tag-based, searchable database - instead of starting with an airport and looking up what procedures are available, I'd start with a desired experience or challenge and look up an airport, combination of airports, or route that could provide that specific challenge. Some examples of tags might be:

NDB (and other types of approaches)
short runway
Bravo satellite
approach
TEC
requires talking to center
airport pair
interesting missed approach procedure
interesting departure procedure
requires fast NAV switching
requires fast COMM switching
routing that tends to generate convoluted clearances, etc.

One great thing about flying in PE is that something *always* seems to come in a flight, whether it's a small pilot error or an unexpected clearance. This would just be a way to add specific challenges when I wanted to practice them. (PE might then have an augmented version of the database for use with the commercial and flight school subscribers, one that includes challenges that require special participation from the controller side.)

I know that this tag-based, searchable database already exists in one very real way: I posted a question on the forum here and voila!... an answer popped up thanks to Jason. The forum IS in some sense this database-like pool of experience to draw on!

OK...</ramble> -Doug