If Heather is flying the procedure with a stiff, gusty crosswind, she will wand to avail herself of every opportunity to get established, because with that minimal fuel, she won't want to be fooling around with a missed approach. Gotta get it right the first time.
Yep, that's what I was thinking -- she has (barely) enough fuel for the 2 course reversals and the final approach, but not a go-around, so she definitely has to strive for maximum accuracy (especially considering the 500-foot ceiling). BTW, I've decided to siphon off another 5 minutes' worth of fuel from her tanks (out of the 15 minutes originally there)
to REALLY make the scene into a cliffhanger, and also put in a fierce gust of wind (below the MDA, of course
) that nearly puts the plane into the roof of the main hangar. (I've decided to fudge on the mud, though -- I don't have enough experience with muddy runways to describe a landing on one in exciting detail, and in any case the landing is scary enough already
. )