Circling For Keeps

摘要

Aspen, Colo.'s Pitkin County/Sardis Field has three published approaches, reproduced at right. Despite all of them incorporating final approach courses aligned relatively closely to the runway, none of them include straight-in minimums. Each includes circling minimums greater than 2000 feet agl, and none are authorized at night. Perhaps the poster-child accident for those who would urge caution when executing the circling maneuver, circling at night or even flying into Aspen in other than clear-and-a-million VFR is the March 29, 2001, fatal crash involving a chartered Gulfstream Ⅲ.