It was November in Seattle. The ceiling had been going up and down all morning. A pilot was heard on the unicom asking for a runway advisory—he was still 6 miles out.
Although he was instrument rated, and the airplane was IFR equipped and legal for instrument flight, he chose to divert to a nearby airport and have his wife pick him up. The reason? The airport lacked a published instrument approach. He was not the first pilot to have this experience.
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Situations like this often trigger discussions about what it takes to get the FAA to approve a published instrument approach at your airport. Please note the words “approved” and “published” because you probably know someone or have heard stories about a pilot scud running because of a case of “get-home-itis” and ending up in a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report for Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT).
When this happens, the talk of establishing an instrument approach at the airport often reaches a crescendo.
How to Acquire an Instrument Approach
What does it take to get the FAA to create an Instrument Flight Procedure (IFP), colloquially known as “an approach” at your airport? It starts with someone making a request for one.
According to the FAA’s Aeronautical Information Services, the department that develops and maintains all public instrument flight procedures and airways, “any person with an aeronautical interest may submit a request for an approach.” These include air carriers, FAA field offices, state or local governments, airport management entities, businesses, flight schools, and individual pilots.
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The FAA has a web page with the IFP request process. Be ready to answer at least 30 questions about the airport location, type of approach requested, type of aircraft, name of the person making the request, name of the airport contact, phone numbers and emails, and if the request is to create a new procedure, delete one, or amend one.
The agency wants to know if the airport is designated as a federally obligated National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) facility and therefore eligible to receive federal grants. This is important because, if the airport accepts a grant, it comes with assurances, namely that it will remain open to all traffic for a set amount of time, usually 25 years.
You need to know if the airport infrastructure and obstacle survey meet the standards for the type of procedure requested. If you are uncertain, there is an “unknown” option, and the page directs you to FAA Advisory Circular 150/5300-13A, Airport Design, Table 3-4. You can also contact your local airports district office or state aviation department for details.
The next question asks about environmental hazards. For example, if the airport is near noise-sensitive areas like a residential neighborhood, wetland, park, school, or hospital, that is taken into consideration. This is followed by a question of whether the airport has certified local or remote altimeter settings available, such as AWOS or ASOS, and the nearest airport with a certified altimeter. You get to answer which runway the procedure should be aligned to and guess the highest landing speed of the aircraft. That information will be used to determine approach minimums anticipated to use the procedure. The application cautions that if C and D (faster speeds) are applicable, it may be that additional airport infrastructure could be required.
There is a question about desired minima, then you are asked to describe preferred routing for the procedure, if applicable—in 1,800 words or less—followed by justification of why this approach is needed and the scope of the project if it is approved.
After the request is made, the agency will assess the airport’s operational requirements and traffic patterns. If the airport traffic has increased due to an uptick in flight training or a local non-aviation business (i.e., air ambulance service) utilizes the airport more and can show need for an instrument approach, then the agency conducts a study to determine if a procedure can be established safely and cost effectively with minimal environmental impact.
The IFP validation team will analyze the request and determine the FAA’s response. If the request is not approved, the team will document the reasons it was rejected and notify the proponent.
If the IFP request is approved, it is forwarded to the IFP prioritization team. The airport’s master plan and existing construction are reviewed during the design of the RNAV approach procedure, making sure it complies with safety requirements and meets efficiency standards. The creation of an approach involves “stakeholder coordination,” which is a fancy way of saying there has to be collaboration with airport operators, airlines, and local community members.
It typically does not require a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), but the FAA still goes through extensive coordination and consultation with aviation authorities and stakeholders,” an agency spokesperson said. “We also work with any affected community through roundtables, ad hoc committees, and task forces to receive feedback and propose solutions to any possible concerns.”
Sometimes community meetings are a challenge as some people interpret the creation of an instrument approach at an airport as the first step to expansion. They often raise concerns about airline service coming into the airport, even if it has a runway that measures less than 4,000 feet, putting it off limits to most business jets.
If no major objections are raised, work begins on the physical construction at the airport to support an RNAV approach. This involves a GPS ground station often fenced off in a small compound. Software is used to ensure accurate satellite positioning for RNAV procedures.
The fixes that define the procedure are required to have five letters in the name, and they often reference local color. For example, the RNAV 35 at Auburn Municipal Airport-Dick Scobee Field (S50) in Washington state, named after the famous astronaut, has the fixes CMNDR, SCOBE, and LFTOF. The procedure is then submitted to the FAA for final review and approval. Once it is published, the RNAV approach appears in the agency’s charts, and it sends out notifications to stakeholders and publishes NOTAMs to inform pilots that a new procedure is in place.
“The timeline for creating an approach can vary based on regulatory and technical factors and can take anywhere from 12 months to over two years,” the FAA spokesperson said. “The cost can also vary depending on the airspace complexity, surrounding terrain, and the needs of the airport involved.”
Changing an Existing Approach
Instrument approaches can also be updated, perhaps to add additional Initial Approach Fixes (IAFs), remove a fix, or change its name, sticking to the five-letter rule. The FAA can also remove an approach altogether when there is a change in technology, for example, the phasing out of Non-Directional Beacons (NDBs) accelerated in the early 2000s in favor of RNAV. Knowing how to fly an NDB approach will set you apart from other pilots (in a good way) as it is old school technology but still in use in some parts of the world.
The NDB is a low-power amplitude modulation. The ground-based equipment often consists of a small fenced-in area with a vertical metal antennae that can range from 64-224 feet high held up by guy wires and located next to a small shed, which resembles a chicken coop from the air, housing the transmitter, power supplies, and antennae-tuning units. The NDBs were state-of-the-art technology during World War II, and as such they were often located near airports that had been used by the military.
Test-Flying the Approaches
When new approaches are created, they undergo a comprehensive FAA inspection before being allowed for public use.
The agency flies a specialized aircraft to verify navigation and signal accuracy, obstacle clearance, and to make sure the procedure is designed with safety in mind. When these conditions are met, the procedures are published and available to pilots. And keep in mind the FAA does change approaches periodically.
Decoding IFR Fixes
According to the FAA, there are approximately 60,000-70,000 IFR fixes in the U.S. These are five-letter designations that often seem to be nonsensical, until you learn more about the airport they serve or the region where they are located.
That’s why Mike Conley, a 30-year pilot with an interest in how fixes get their names, created SkyFix (skyfix.aero), a website that allows knowledgeable people to share the information. The instructions note the entries should have an explanation along with a verifiable source, such as FAA charts, ATC knowledge, or historical records.
IFR arrivals and departures often have names based on local sports teams, culture, celebrities, or famous residents. The final approach fix for the RNAV 35 at Auburn Municipal Airport (S50) in Washington state is SCOBE after astronaut Dick Scobee, who grew up in Auburn.
“Most everyone I talk to about SkyFix is enthusiastic,” said Conley. “The controllers seem most interested. I think it is because they deal with the same fixes day in and day out, whereas pilots typically are traveling across more sectors, and thus see more fixes. I really hope that other aviation enthusiasts enjoy contributing to the site as much as I do.”
This column first appeared in the June Ultimate Issue 971 of the FLYING print edition.