OnCourse Software

Many airfields (for example South Lake Tahoe, CA - KTVL) do not have approaches to all of the runways due to terrain/obstacles/noise abatement etc...so if the field is IMC and the winds strongly favor another runway, an approach is flown to a runway with an intrument approach, and clearance is obtained to circle--to maneuver visually to align with and land on a different runway. In the example above (KTVL), there are two runways, 18 and 36, and approaches only to rwy 18 due to high terrain south of the field. So if weather is at/above 1300-5 (Cat C) the the approved method of landing from an instrument approach would be to fly LDA-DME Rwy 18, circle to land rwy 36.

How is this done in PF3?

Regards

Bob Scott

There are probably a couple of ways to do this, but the approach would be flown at pilot's discretion. If you do not have the STAR option selected on the SID/STAR page, when you reach the last waypoint in your PF3 flight plan, PF3 will tell you to expect vectors for runway 36. If you do not want to accept PF3's vectoring, you would hit hotkey 1 to request clearance at pilot's discretion. (I believe you can also do this before you reach your last waypoint, provided you are in contact with Approach.) You will then be cleared for runway 36 approach at pilot's discretion and will not get vectors, so you can fly whatever approach you want (including LDA/DME with circle-to-land, or DME arc, or whatever). When you are lined up with the runway you may need to tune Tower manually and hit hotkey 1 to request landing clearance, as you will be close to the field and the request may not happen automatically.

If you have the STAR option selected, the cleared-to-finals request at your last waypoint is automated. Also if for whatever reason you are assigned the wrong runway, you should request a runway change. Sorry for the long post but experiment and see what works best for you.

It hasn't happened to me in a while, but I believe if you use Ctrl+Shft+W to request a runway other than the assigned runway, ATC will clear you to a circling approach to land on the wind-favored runway. I'm not positive of this, but I think it's the case.