Like anything, it’s the inability of the crew that makes any manoeuvre dangerous. Why the inability? Lack of training/currency/practice etc.
Agree. The following comment is one person's personal opinion for what it is worth. There should be nothing inherently dangerous with a circling approach providing the pilot uses common sense and sticks to the rules.
With the advent of GPS straight-in instrument approaches on so many runways, it was only a matter of time before circling approaches were not needed anymore. The piloting skill required for a marginal weather circling approaches or at night should not have to be something extraordinary, although currency is important as with most other flying manoeuvres.
Simulator training, where accent on autopilot flown instrument approaches (including GPS approaches) seems to takes precedence over practice at visual circuits (which is what a circling approach is anyway) means less time available to practice circling approaches. Most pilots are aware that in some full flight simulators, there are limitations with visual displays where sight of the runway environment is lost as soon as the runway threshold disappears while the aircraft flies abeam while on the downwind leg.
This means the pilot is forced to go heads down on instruments and follow an artificial map and even start timing depending on the height of the MDA. In real life, if forced to abandon visual flying on a circling approach it is time to immediately go-around. In the simulator, since we often lose sight of the runway late downwind because of visual limitations, we are sometimes are forced cheat a little and stay on the clocks until the runway in sight on final. We take a big deep breath and the check captain ticks the box.
It goes without saying that it is good airmanship to stay at or above the circling MDA until on final with the runway, in view. This is because obstacle clearance is not guaranteed once you descend below the circling MDA anywhere in the circuit except in the splay on final and on the visual approach slope via the PAPI . Circling approaches are not hazardous if the pilot sticks to the common sense rules. That includes keeping above or at the published MDA at all times on downwind, base and initial final. It is in some older simulators that the limitations of simulator design mean the pilot has no choice but to stay on instruments and maintain circling MDA until the runway appears in front of you when PAPI guidance is available. In real life, if forward vision is lost then a go-around is required.
In the simulator, the limitations of the visual display invariably means the pilot is flying blind until the runway hopefully appears into view on final. It becomes more of a box ticking exercise.than a replica of what the pilot should see outside in real life.
Thus it is no wonder that some pilots consider a circling approach a dangerous manoeuvre when the vast majority of circling approaches he has conducted in jet transport aircraft were only in the simulator with its inherent visual limitations.
Last edited by Judd; 14th Jun 2020 at 06:31.