Some years back I left Kalispell, MT at night for this little airport just South of the Arctic Circle.....the first thing that struck me was the lack of radio chatter, hardly any lights down below, then about 200 nms out they said 'Cleared for any approach at 'X' airport'
So I am sitting there...a whopping 2500 hrs of flight time, scratching my head at how I was going to do this...
Needless to say I considered flying to the IAP, at 14000ft, then circling down(lol)..that would be the safe thing do for for sure...then I took a look at the MEAs..got down to one of those..then found the MSA..got down to that..crossed the IAP at the published ALT....then did a full instrument approach.....It's easy if the aiport has a VOR but if you get down to an MEA...flying to an NDB...MSA seems the way to do it..