ASR Approach

[Flying Illini]

Have recieved the ASR into Key West several times.
Got one going into FMY two weeks ago...they asked if we would do it since they needed the currency...of course I obliged, those things are so easy!

 

[Snoopy58]

IIRC, ASR mins are published on NOAA approach charts on the same page as other straight-in approaches... i.e. Cat A, B, C, etc across the top, and ILS, then LOC only, then ASR down the side. On Jepp charts, many airports have a 10-16 or 10-19 page or somesuch that shows the airport and feathers for every ILS and at the bottom lists ASR mins. Seems like a lot of military/civil joint-use fields have ASR mins published. Pretty routine to do them in the Herk. Probably easier to fit into the workload & more challenging (i.e. worthwhile) for the controller to perform, since a C-130 has a quicker transit from turning final to the runway than a light single... less time the controller spends on the ASR (since the guy/gal controlling final for the ASR isn't available to control other traffic), and less room for sloppy vectors.

Definitely a fun approach, and nice to have seen before should you need one to get down if your navaid receivers happen to fail on you!

 

[groundpointsix]

IIRC, ASR mins are published on NOAA approach charts on the same page as other straight-in approaches... i.e. Cat A, B, C, etc across the top, and ILS, then LOC only, then ASR down the side. On Jepp charts, many airports have a 10-16 or 10-19 page or somesuch that shows the airport and feathers for every ILS and at the bottom lists ASR mins.

Actually, the ASR mins in the gov't plates are found near the beginning and are just listed in textual fashion. (I'd give you the page, but I'm out of town and don't have a set of plates with me)

In the Jepps the ASR usually gets its own page IIRC. 19-xx maybe? Can't remember, don't usually get to use Jepps.

 

[GravityHater]

Once when our ILS was out we had a rare day of low ceilings. An AmEagle flight was doing an n-p approach and missed. They then asked for an ASR because it had slightly lower mins and still missed. Meanwhile I got in to a very nearby satellite airport I assume because I could get 100' lower being a cat A a/c. They sounded peeved that they had to go all the way back, and hearing me make it (I assume this part) likely didn't help their attitude that day. It was interesting to hear an asr in actual... Id thought that was for emergencies (or practice) only and never imagined a pt121 could do them.

 

[Vector4fun]

Page N in the front of the NACO charts. (OK I did have to look that up )


I notice in SC-5, which is SE Texas, only Beaumont has published mins anymore. Nothing for any Houston airport or Austin.

In SC-3, which is SW Texas, NGP, ELP/BIF, NQI, DLF, MAF, NOG, GRK, SJT, ACT, PWG, and CNW have ASR/PAR mins published. Most of those are military fields. Nothing in the SAT area published, even for RND? Hmmm.

The FAA is slowly getting out of the ASR business I believe. Before I left ELP years ago, we'd often have to turn them down because there wasn't staffing to open an ASR scope. When it was really slow I've tried running an ASR on one scope on one freq, while running normal traffic on another freq on the scope next to it, but you don't really want to do that more than a couple times, it sucks. The FAA was ready to eliminate ASRs at ELP/BIF years ago, but I believe the military lobbied to keep them published out there....

[edit]

I meant to add that there are currency requirements that controllers have to meet to run them. Seems we had to log one ASR a month, and one no-gyro per quarter IIRC.

 

[Snoopy58]

Ground .6,

You're absolutely correct about the textual thing in the front of the book -- don't know where I got the contrary idea, but as soon as I read your comment, the lightbulb came on.

FWIW, SWA is authorized to conduct ASR approaches, but not a PAR unless in an emergency. Pretty rare to actually do one, though.

 

[greygoose]

Duluth, MN has the published ASR. But whats the point all it is, is a chart with altitudes and localizers.