If you’re flying into King County International Airport-Boeing Field (KBFI) using the published VFR procedures, take note. Officials say there’s a clerical error on the VFR Terminal Area Chart (TAC) released March 19, and pilots should continue using the routes that have been in place since 2021 until further notice.
Boeing Field has parallel runways and an eclectic mix of business jets, freighters, helicopters, and light piston traffic, including intensive flight training. According to King County, the airport sees an average of 18,000 operations annually.
Daniel Anderson, KBFI air traffic manager, said the airport group carefully reviews traffic flows and made some changes to the published routes. However, he said clerical errors made outside the facility resulted in the VFR charts being released before the changes could be implemented.
Anderson is utilizing social media in addition to FAA channels to get the word out. To avoid confusion, Boeing Field air traffic control (ATC) has decided to pause the application of the new routes and advise pilots to continue to use the established VFR procedures.
“We are hoping for the fixes to the routes to be made and [have set] a tentative date of May 14 [the date of the next chart cycle] for implementation,” said Anderson.
No More Kent Arrival in North Flow
There’s one notable exception. Anderson said the Kent Arrival used when the field is in north flow has been discontinued for safety reasons.
“That was the main route from the south,” he said. “There was too much conflict between IFR traffic descending on to Runway 32L and the VFR traffic in the vicinity of the IFR traffic. That is too tight of a corridor, especially when there is traffic in the pattern, and there were too many issues, [so] in the interest of safety, we decided to get rid of that route entirely.”
The Kent Arrival was established in 2021 and was used by aircraft approaching from the south. The arrival was landmark dependent. The route had aircraft flying below 2,000 feet to avoid the Seattle Class B airspace.
Pilots were instructed to contact Boeing tower on 118.30 when they were over the city of Kent, located about 14 nm south of the airport, then fly northbound over State Route 167, a freeway on the east side of the Kent Valley, passing by the Medical Center (a multistoried square building that resembles a giant solar battery because of all the windows) and the Ikea building (a large warehouse painted bright blue and yellow) at an altitude of 1,100 feet.
Pilots were often requested to report over the landmarks then instructed to report over the Renton Concrete Recyclers (looks like a big sand pile) and make a straight in approach to 32R, measuring 3,709 feet by 100 feet. Runway 32L measures 10,007 by 200 and is usually reserved for IFR and jet traffic. It can be challenging to spot traffic while flying the arrival because the mostly white aircraft often blend in with the white roofs of industrial buildings in the Kent Valley.
Anderson noted there were sometimes conflicts between IFR traffic descending on the straight-in to runway 32L and the aircraft on the Kent Arrival.
For now, pilots should report over downtown Bellevue or North Vashon for sequencing when KBFI is in north flow. In addition, aircraft that request to fly the Rainier Beach Transition should at Rainier Beach continue to climb to 1,900 feet Direct to Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT), per the old VFR routes.
Anderson advises pilots to double-check NOTAMs for KBFI while the airport groups work to get the VFR routes updated and published again.