Circling Approach

A circling approach begins where the instrument procedure ends. Having descended to the minimum descent altitude, or to a preselected circling altitude above it, and having acquired the required visual references, the pilot manoeuvres visually onto a base or downwind leg appropriate for the landing runway and the conditions, then lands. The aircraft is low, slow, configured, close to terrain and being flown by outside reference in the same conditions that required an instrument approach in the first place.

FAA-S-ACS-8 grades it accordingly. The applicant must maintain airspeed ±10 knots, desired heading or track ±10°, and altitude +100/−0 feet until descending below the MDA or the preselected circling altitude. The approach and landing configuration must be established with a stabilized approach and a descent rate that ensures arrival at that altitude before the missed approach point. If landing, the applicant initiates a stabilized descent and must touch down in the first one-third of the selected runway, without excessive manoeuvring, without exceeding the normal operating limits of the aeroplane, and without exceeding 30° of bank. If a missed approach occurs, the turn must be made in the appropriate direction using the correct procedure with the aeroplane appropriately configured.

The risk-management elements read almost as an accident summary: circling at night or in marginal visibility, losing visual contact with an identifiable part of the airport, management of altitude, airspeed or distance while circling, low-altitude manoeuvring including stall, spin or controlled flight into terrain, and executing a missed approach after the missed approach point while circling. That last one is the case with no published procedure to fall back on, and it is why the knowledge element for the Task is approach categories and their related airspeed restrictions — the category sets the protected airspace the manoeuvre must stay inside.

Circling is the Task most often flown in a simulator rather than the aircraft, and FAA-S-ACS-8 addresses this directly: the circling approach, the landing Task and the multi-engine Tasks are treated separately when considering what a given flight simulation training device is authorised for. Schools therefore need to know not just that they have a device, but what its letter of authorisation actually permits for this Task.

It is also the manoeuvre where the gap between regulators is widest in practice rather than in text. Circling minima, category restrictions and even the availability of the procedure vary by state and by aerodrome, so a school teaching students who will fly internationally has to be explicit that the FAA tolerances are the FAA's, not a universal standard.

Aviatize tracks which Tasks a school's flight simulation training device is approved to cover alongside the device's own record, so a course coordinator scheduling a circling lesson can see whether the device qualifies or whether the sortie has to be flown in the aircraft. Approach variants are recorded as individual objectives, so the circling requirement is visible as a discrete item on a student's remaining-work list rather than buried inside a generic approach count.