Approach to land in the Grenadines
Visiting New York City during the holidays is always a fun and beautiful experience. However, public transportation in NYC can quickly become an annoyance at the very least. But even flying expensive private jets around New York can become exasperating. During the holidays and spring break, my charter clients’ trips make a quick transformation from businessmen and women, movie and TV stars, and politicians to family vacation travelers. Rather than flying my typical triangle from New York to Florida to California, I get to frequent tropical islands and scenic mountains more often during the holidays.
Rather than flying my typical triangle from New York to Florida to California, I get to frequent tropical islands and scenic mountains more often during the holidays.
During this past Christmas and New Year’s season, we flew to five tropical islands that even included a few overnights: The Grenadines are a long hop from NY, near Grenada.
St. Maarten is always a fun stop especially visiting the beach with airliners flying overhead on a very short final. Next, we brought in the New Year in San Juan, Puerto Rico. And our last island stop was in Anguilla, near St. Maarten.
We also had the pleasure of flying to Montrose, CO. The weather was reported VFR on the ASOS; however, by the time we finished flying the ILS to Runway 17, it began snowing, and we did not break out until minimums. The TAF at Montrose was not very accurate. The weather later went well below what was being reported, with less than ¼ mile visibility in fog. The next morning did not prove to be any better. The weather was again ¼ mile visibility but with freezing fog, that prohibited our takeoff for several hours. Soon the picturesque Montrose FBO quickly started filling up with pilots and passengers. With this newly acquired “airport appreciation time,” I had time to chat with passengers (who were not even mine) and had the pleasure of bumping into former colleagues and jet students as well.
After escaping the Montrose weather, we flew to Reno, NV. Reno has two North-South runways and one East-West runway. The winds were gusting to 28 knots out of the West, but the long runways and all the approaches are in the North-South direction. Twenty-eight knots provide a challenging crosswind for the Bombardier Challenger (no pun intended). So, my FO/SIC, who was flying, elected to take a visual approach to runway 26 directly into the wind. During the approach briefing, we were fixated on the large mountains to the SE. But then, on the visual approach to runway 26, we quickly learned why there were no approaches to this runway. We had the pleasure of maneuvering around a smaller mountain while on short final approach. I guess the lesson learned could be: Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it. After a short stop, we moved on to Burlington, VT, for another approach at ILS minimums. It was beginning to feel like I was back in the flight simulator.
Next was a quick repo to the New York area. On any given day, the approaches in use at Teterboro, NJ (KTEB) Airport are largely driven by what approaches are being used at Newark, NJ Airport. The approach from the North is most frequently the RNAV (GPS) Y Rwy 19. It is hit or miss if we are going to start the approach at the STRAD Intersection IAF or be vectored onto final. Another interesting observation is that the LPV minimums (with the angling more accurate WAAS lateral and vertical guidance) are 241 ft MSL (235 ft AGL), while the LNAV/VNAV minimums are 1096 ft MSL (1090 ft AGL). This 855 ft difference is due to the 693 ft tower just to the West on final approach. Look out of the right window on your next approach and you will see what I am talking about.
When approaching Teterboro from the South, as we did a few days later, you will often receive the ILS to Runway 06, with circling to Runway 01. This requires a bit more maneuvering and provides a scenic view of the Met Life Stadium while flying the circling approach.
to Rwy 01 at KTEB
Caution, extra maneuvering increases risk. Back in May 2017, there was a fatal Learjet 35 accident that occurred while conducting this approach.
The NTSB report stated:
“The controller had vectored the flight for the instrument landing system runway 6 approach, circle to runway 1. When the crew initiated the circle-to-land maneuver, the airplane was 2.8 nautical miles (nm) beyond the final approach fix (about 1 mile from the runway 6 threshold) and could not be maneuvered to line up with the landing runway, which should have prompted the crew to execute a go-around because the flight did not meet the company’s stabilized approach criteria. However, neither pilot called for a go-around, and the PIC (who had assumed control of the airplane at this point in the flight) continued the approach by initiating a turn to align with the landing runway. Radar data indicated that the airplane’s airspeed was below the approach speed required by company standard operating procedures (SOPs). During the turn, the airplane stalled and crashed about 1/2 nm south of the runway 1 threshold.”
“The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the pilot-in-command’s (PIC) attempt to salvage an unstabilized visual approach, which resulted in an aerodynamic stall at low altitude. Contributing to the accident was the PIC’s decision to allow an unapproved second-in-command to act as pilot flying, the PIC’s inadequate and incomplete preflight planning, and the flight crew’s lack of an approach briefing.”
Upon taxiing to the FBO, we found the ramp to be more crowded than we had ever seen before. Inside the FBO was standing room only with passengers waiting to board their flights to the islands or mountains to celebrate the holidays, and flight crews obtaining supplies for their airplanes.
The next morning was nearly as crowded. Fortunately, we had fueled the night before, but we still needed to de-ice. It took a while, with a few prompts, before we were de-iced, but eventually, we were ready to go fly, albeit after a $2,500 de-icing fee. We were assigned Runway 24 with the RUUDY 6 RNAV Departure Procedure. We briefed the departure carefully as I have had many colleagues mess this one up. It provides a top altitude of 2,000 feet, but first, it has you level off and cross WENTZ Intersection at 1,500 feet. This altitude restriction is often missed by crews.
Our two-week work rotation ended with 24 legs, several 14-hour days, some minor maintenance issues, five islands, four NY overnights, mountain flying, freezing fog, de-icing four times, and multiple approaches down to minimums. Overall, we had a great trip and delivered many happy passengers on their vacations. When all was said and done, our crew (two pilots and a flight attendant) were all more than ready to celebrate our own holidays with family and friends who were waiting for us at home.
P.S. Thank you to our families who allow us to do what we love.
