Originally Posted by
sonicbum
Hi Hans,
that's how the procedure is built, so this is accounted by the legislation. Worldwide, like many others here, I have seen VOR or NDB approaches with the landing runway placed 90º or so from the final approach track requiring a circle to land, sometimes with prescribed tracks due to terrain/noise. One example of this is Nice LFMN and the VOR approach RIVIERA for 04L/R. It is indeed the VOR APP followed by circling for the same runway, the latter being heavily offset.
I used was based in NCE for half year, and flew into for around 6 years, so I have done that approach maybe a hundred times. The issue I had with your post was that you said if assigned a circling approach for rwy16 you cannot circle to 16 but only to all the other rwy-s at that airport. An approach is designated "circling" either because there is more than 30 degrees between the final approach course or because the descent from the MDA at the MAPT to the touchdown zone is more than 400 F/M. Once the rwy environment is in sight, you proceed within the circling distance, in visual contact to the intended rwy for landing. This can be any, including the one the appch leads into. An example of the top of my head was Bilbao VOR10 (not longer published). Visibility required was +/- 1.5km, minimums for both straight in and circling based on our GA climb grad 1500' or so. You would see the rwy about a mile out at 1400'AGL, circle to the left and land rwy 10, much better than the downwind for 30 or 28. Yes, you need ATC clearance, but totally legal. You are right that you can't make the straight in from the MDA at the MAPT without busting stabilized approach criteria, but that is why we circle, and what rwy you circle to is between you and the controller..
Originally Posted by
sonicbum
Ok, I'll try again. If You are flying a, let's say, VOR APP for runway 16 with circling 34, You will level off at the circling MDA and fly the circuit, we are all happy with that. What You can't do if You are flying a CDFA is level off somewhere above the VOR MDA, reach the MAPt and then dive down to land on runway 16 (aside from the fact that You will probably bust all kind of stabilisation gates). Having said that, You can't fly a VOR APP for runway 16 and then circle for... runway 16 ! There is no legal provision to back up such a decision. You can fly either the published IAP (VOR in our scenario) or fly a visual.