Originally Posted by
sonicbum
I give You credits for the explanation but to be honest I don't think anybody would get away with it should an event occur in such circumstances. I can't prove You black on white that it is not legal, but I would not want to discover it under a safety investigation conducted by some Authority, therefore, before some readers decide to try it out and avoid an unnecessary diversion to their operator, I would really try to bring it to the attention of some regulators and come up with a clear cut explanation.
Sonicbum, if you were familiar with Heraklion, you would most probably agree that circling back to rwy 27 is
not more dangerous than a standard circling pattern to rwy 09. There's the city and port with large ships and cranes just east of rwy 09. (And a displaced threshold on rwy 09 because of it.) On rwy 27 you come in over the sea, and as long as you stay on the center line of the rwy or north of it, there's nothing but water. (apart from an island 6NM north of the airport rising to 883 ft) The circle back to land on 27 is
just as safe (even safer!) than a standard circle to land to rwy 09. A competent, well trained and prepared crew should be able to do it. Probably my operator wouldn't blame me if I diverted to Chania or Athens, but I sure would like to bring my passengers to their intended destination if there's a safe and legal way to bring them there.
Originally Posted by sonicbum
On the opposite side, if somebody ends up trying to be smart by doing something he has never tried before or has never heard of, then things could go differently.
It all depends on the experience, decision making and many other airmanship factors.
But, we're not talking about the legality anymore and that was the main question.
My personal final conclusion:
It's not illegal, therefore it's legal. whether it's a good idea depends on many other considerations that have nothing to do with the legal aspect! (But in Heraklion it sure is less risky than circling to 09) This was my last contribution to this thread. (Unless anybody would start making incredibly stupid remarks !
)