Challenge: ILS@KPWM, Expressway@KLGA -- Are You Up For It?

[Evan Reiter]

We're just over a week away from the KLGA and KPWM Challenge event. On Sunday, July 8 from 3-6pm ET you'll be up against difficult approaches at both of the featured airports. Portland will be socked in, with low ceilings, thunderstorms, limited visibility, icing, and wind shear. I'm not sure if it can possibly be any worse than the last one...but if so, it will be! La Guardia will be perfectly VMC with light and variable winds and clear skies. Where's the challenge in that, you ask? You'll have to fly the fun, and sometimes white-knuckle, Expressway Visual Runway 31 approach which involves a nice 180 degree turn to short final, all below 1,500', and with strict restrictions on the location (go too far in either direction and you'll have the FAA knocking on your door the next day).

 

But we aren't asking you to fly the KLGA approach blind. An event like this wouldn't be on BVA unless we had the help you expect from a learning community like ours. The official KLGA Expressway Visual NOTAM is now available from here; it's also linked from the Challenge Details page. This NOTAM explains all about the approach and offers tips and images for flying it. Throughout the event, controllers at New York will be accomodating; we know that you may be trying the approach for the first time and so we'll let you know how you're doing. If you make a mistake or get turned around, just ask for vectors back into the sequence. There will be a live radar feed available throughout the event, and each pilot will get a picture of the landing at KLGA posted to the forums (unless I forget about someone, or you'd rather not have your image posted).

 

As you prepare for the event, use this thread to ask ANY questions you have about how the approach should work. Use opportunities like tonight's Triple Center to try out approaches like the River Visual Runway 19 (KDCA) or even this one (weather permitting).

 

If you don't feel comfortable flying the approach then of course you can just fly from KLGA to KPWM, land in the IMC, and call it a day. However, I believe most members are anxious for a challenge and are ready and able to learn new things. Navigation, improved situational awareness, multi-tasking, and low-level stellar airmanship are all part of this challenge. Are you up to it?

 

 

In this Challenge, pilots will have to contend with difficult situations at both airports. Arrivals at Portland (KPWM) will face solid instrument conditions with low ceilings, thunderstorms, limited visibility, icing, and wind shear. Have your ILS charts ready, make sure your aircraft has de-ice capabilities, and be prepared for a white-knuckle instrument approach.

 

Meanwhile, pilots flying into La Guardia (KLGA) will fly the exciting Expressway Visual Runway 31 approach that is used any time the weather allows. The approach takes pilots along the Hudson River, around Battery Park (Manhattan Island), and culminates with a low turn over Citi Field (home of the Mets) to line up on Runway 31 (only 7,003' long). There are no other approaches available into KLGA; fly it right or divert!

 

*** The server will be re-started at 2:00pm ET and 7:00pm ET in order to set custom weather across the server. Please time any flights to ensure you are not airborne when the server is restarted. ***

[Guest James Stewart]

Thanks for the excellent PDF Evan, i'll try some approaches in free flight tomorrow to see how the landmarks and my nerve pans out. The trip seems to be around one hour in either direction. I haven't done one of these events before so do we have time to complete a journey both ways or is it just a touch and go at one end then a full stop at the other?

[Evan Reiter]

=I haven't done one of these events before so do we have time to complete a journey both ways or is it just a touch and go at one end then a full stop at the other?

The event lasts three hours. Figure an hour flight time for each leg, that gives you an hour for the taxi and turnaround time as well. If you get right into the event at 8pm ET, you should have no problem getting both legs done by 11pm ET.

[Chris Raabe]

I'm not sure if I read it anywhere but are you allowed to overfly Citifield? I tried it earlier in free flight and ended up swinging a little wide each time without overflying Citifield. And something like that drives me up the wall!

[Evan Reiter]

Looking at the chart itself, I believe you're supposed to make the turn just past Citi Field. I'm not sure whether there are specific restrictions that preclude you from overflying the stadium and/or whether anything special happens if there is a game going on.

 

I'm also not if or how the special security notice 9/5151 (http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_9_5151.html) applies here. Clearly the route that's listed on the chart takes them inside of that airspace but perhaps there is some exclusion:

PURSUANT TO 14 CFR SECTION 99.7, SPECIAL SECURITY INSTRUCTIONS, COMMENCING ONE HOUR BEFORE THE SCHEDULED TIME OF THE EVENT UNTIL ONE HOUR AFTER THE END OF THE EVENT. ALL AIRCRAFT AND PARACHUTE OPERATIONS ARE PROHIBITED WITHIN A 3 NMR UP TO AND INCLUDING 3000 FT AGL OF ANY STADIUM HAVING A SEATING CAPACITY OF 30,000 OR MORE PEOPLE WHERE EITHER A REGULAR OR POST SEASON MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE, OR NCAA DIVISION ONE FOOTBALL GAME IS OCCURRING.

 

It also does state: "THE RESTRICTIONS DO NOT APPLY TO THOSE AIRCRAFT AUTHORIZED BY AND IN CONTACT WITH ATC FOR OPERATIONAL OR SAFETY OF FLIGHT PURPOSES, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND AIR AMBULANCE FLIGHT OPERATIONS." so that may exempt guys on the x31 Approach as well.

[Tim Brett]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/sports/baseball/26pilots.html

 

[Evan Reiter]

Screenshots from the event are now posted at: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2975.