​Chart Wise: Witham Field (KSUA) RNAV GPS Rwy 12

An adventure to the Bahamas is one every GA pilot should take given the opportunity. On return, you’ll need to clear customs when entering the U.S.

One place many pilots choose to do so is at Witham Field (KSUA) in Stuart, Florida. North of the busier Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach area airspaces, it can be a great place to stop, check in, fuel up, and then head back home—reluctantly for many of us who don’t really want to have to leave the Bahamas behind.

This Article First Appeared in FLYING Magazine

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It’s common for some lower clouds to cover the shoreline areas, requiring a pilot to fly an approach to get in. In such a case, you might just find yourself utilizing the RNAV GPS Runway 12 to get into KSUA.

A) Waypoint Feeding from Offshore

A pilot might be assigned or choose to transition across and ANGEE waypoint when coming back into U.S. airspace for this particular approach. A designated waypoint used commonly in the “DEFENSE AREA” you can see on a sectional chart, it’s along an airway (V492) and may be used by ATC to help give pilots a waypoint to navigate toward when returning from airspace outside the contiguous U.S. It also happens to be a feeder route, a point from which the pilot flies a 250 track at or above 2,000 feet msl to one of the initial approach fixes, HADAT, to establish onto the approach.

• READ MORE: The Bahamas Are Clearly a Pilot’s Paradise
• READ MORE: The Bahamas Offers Tropical Playground With Widespread Appeal

B) Who to Talk to

The frequency bar on the approach plate gives information about where we should get weather information and who we will be expecting to talk to while flying the approach. We would first get our local weather on the ATIS frequency of 134.475, expect we would at some point be handed off to Palm Beach Approach Control on 132.8, get a handoff to Stuart Tower on 126.6, and eventually talk with the ground controller at Stuart on 121.7 when we have exited the runway and are headed to our parking location, potentially the customs ramp.

C) PETNE Hold

A hold is depicted at the PETNE waypoint, which is both an intermediate fix (IF) and an initial approach fix (IAF), depending on where you start this approach. A pilot might choose (or get vectored) to start the approach at the PETNE waypoint, in which case a procedure turn to establish into the hold and then onto the approach would be required. But if the pilot had sequenced in from IAFs at IVETY, SHEDS, or HADAT, NoPT (no procedure turn) would be required. PETNE might also be a location a pilot might be assigned to hold if the aircraft in front of them hadn’t completed the approach yet and they were waiting for a clearance to proceed. It’s a good skill to keep sharp in case.

D) WAAS and Non-WAAS Minimums

LPV DA, LNAV/VNAV DA, LNAV MDA, and Circling minimums are all offered for this approach. Depending on the equipment capabilities of your aircraft, you are offered multiple potential minimums that will take a pilot anywhere from the highest minimums of 664 feet agl down to 255 feet agl for the lowest LPV minimums. These ranges might just be the difference in whether you get below the cloud deck and see the airport or not before having to execute a missed approach. The LPV and LNAV/VNAV minimums offer decision height (DH) minimums that make the approach “precision-like” in its performance, with a glide slope the pilot should follow if able from the final approach fix to the missed approach point.

E) No Circle to Runway 7 at Night; No Lights Runway 16/34

A note is present about “Circling Rwy 7 NA at night” on this approach. So if you are going to land here at night after flying this approach, runways 12, 25, and 30 are fair game. What may be slightly more confusing is that landing on Runway 16/34 isn’t an option at night. While a note doesn’t say that specifically, although a review of the Chart Supplement will indicate it, the runway is not lit and would not be available to land at night.

F) Night Lights

Speaking of night, notes in the airport diagram in the lower right specify what kinds of lighting to look for. For Runway 12/30, we should expect there to be Runway End Identifier Lights, and we should expect there to be Medium Intensity Runway Lighting (MIRL) on Runway 12/30 and 7/25. There are little circles with the letter “P” in them near the ends of runways 7, 12, 30, and 25 that indicate that PAPI (Precision Approach Path Indicator) lighting systems are in place at each of those runways to help the pilot transition from the approach onto the visual glide path for landing.

This column first appeared in the May Issue 970 of the FLYING print edition.