Circling Missed Approach

[Tailwinds]

I'm getting ready for some interviews and trying to come up with answers to a bunch of the gotchas that interviewers are so fond of. So here's a question of technicalities on circling missed approaches.

We all know that during a circling missed you make the initial turn towards the runway of intended landing, then continue turning until established on the missed approach course. This is really easy when the MAC involves intercepting a defined course such as a radial, but what if it involves intercepting an ambiguous course such as a heading?

What constitutes "established on the missed approach course" when there is no defined course? If the initial missed instructions are to turn to a heading, can a pilot consider himself "established" from any point in the circle?

I'm guessing that instructions like that are meant to be executed from the MAP, not from a point in the circle. If that is the case, in a circling missed do you need to continue the turn to reintercept the approach course so that it can be flown to the MAP, and then execute the missed from there?

 

[avbug]

If the missed approach requires a heading, you're established once you're on the heading.

For practical purposes, continue in the circle until you have some altitude. If the missed approach instructions for the VOR RWY 36 is turn left heading two seven zero, climb and maintain three thousand, and you're doing the missed from a circle to runway 18, then continue in the turn in a climb, seeking 3,000. Keep the turn going until you've achieved a heading of two seven zero.

If a particular climb gradient is required, it will be given you as part of the proceedure. If any particular considerations regarding terrain or obstacles apply to your circling, then it will be given. If the missed cannot be accomplished from the circling approach, then circling will not be authorized.

 

[avbug]

Someone urinate in your cherios this morning?

Now that you're done showing us how intelligent you are, how about contributing to the thread?

Why don't you address the poster's question?

 

[slowto250]

Because he doesn't possess the knowledge to do so, is my guess.

Should he choose to prove me wrong, I'm hoping he does so quickly.

Based on a thread he just started, I see a trip to the "box" in his future