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Old 3rd October 2011 | 10:04
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redsnail

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From: Duit On Mon Dei
It would be impossible for me to know every airport I could go into. After 6 years I am still visiting new airports.

Category A
An aerodrome which satisfies all of the following requirements:
• An approved instrument approach procedure;
• At least one runway with no performance limited procedure for take-off and/or landing;
• Published circling minima not higher than 1000 feet above aerodrome level;
• Night operations capability.

Category B
An aerodrome which does not satisfy the Category A requirements or which requires extra considerations such as:
• Non-standard approach aids and/or approach patterns
• Unusual local weather conditions
• Unusual characteristics or performance limitations
• Any other relevant considerations including obstructions, physical layout, lighting, etc

What we do here is get briefed on the specific issues. This is done by reading the notes about the aerodrome in Operations Manual Part C. Usually applicable to the PIC.

Finally there's the Category C airports. Aka the fun ones.
An aerodrome that requires considerations additional to those for a Category B aerodrome. Prior to operating to a Category C aerodrome, the Commander shall have completed the appropriate training or familiarisation and be current in accordance with the recency requirements as detailed in the OM Part C.
More often than not, we'll do specific simulator training for those.
Some examples are Innsbruck, Samedan, Sion, London City etc.

Since the majority of airports fall under Category A, then there's no need to do specific familiarisation for them. A standard 3 degree ILS isn't too tricky.
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