IFR Fix: Mix-up at minimums

The instructor attributed the near-mishap with a departing aircraft to misjudgment and distraction while performing a circling approach to the reciprocal of the active runway—not an uncommon scenario in instrument training.

“I thought we would have plenty of time to sidestep to the downwind prior to the other aircraft taking off,” the instructor explained. “As we got closer to our minimums, the student was asking questions and I, the instructor, missed the departing aircraft's radio call.”

It was only when the trainee removed a view-limiting device that the instructor had spotted the other aircraft and turned left, away from the traffic pattern. Fortunately, the pilot of the other aircraft had them in sight and also turned away, the instructor noted in a filing with the Aviation Safety Reporting System.

The instructor summarized the session’s unintended lesson: “Going forward, I will increase my personal minimums to pattern altitude when doing circling approaches. That will allow us to sidestep to the downwind further away from the runway and let the student help look for other traffic in the pattern.”

If this strikes you as inspired decision making, it conforms to conventional wisdom despite the tendency in instrument training to fly most instrument approaches as close to minimums as possible in recognition of the checkride mandate to be prepared to “execute a normal landing from a straight-in or circling approach when instructed by the evaluator.”

Opposite-direction traffic isn’t the reason that the Instrument Flying Handbook recommends a safer way of flying circling approaches than taking them all the way down to bare minimums, however. “It is important to remember that circling minimums are only minimums. If the ceiling allows it, fly at an altitude that more nearly approximates VFR traffic pattern altitude. This makes any maneuvering safer and brings the view of the landing runway into a more normal perspective.”

The publication augments that advice with reminders to pilots to maintain visual contact with the runway of intended landing during a circling maneuver, and to remember that circling minimums provide a mere 300 feet of margin above obstacles.

That’s a challenging set of tasks and precautions to manage—even without the goals and distractions of the training environment that took one circling approach beyond the point of task saturation.