It is not uncommon for air traffic control to pose this question to pilots on IFR flight plans approaching certain airports when the weather is VFR. In daylight, when the visibility is good, the winds calm, and the pilot familiar with the airport—and the approach is a straight in—the visual is no big deal.

But throw in weather, fatigue, low light, pilot unfamiliarity, and a circle to land, and it’s a different event.

Honeywell Aerospace is trying to mitigate these risks, expanding its navigation database to offer flight management system (FMS) guided visual procedures as a stand-alone option.

According to Jim Johnson, senior manager of flight technical services at Honeywell, the visual approaches are created in collaboration with Jeppesen. The instructions for the guided visuals look like Jeppesen approach plates but carry the caveat “advisory guidance only” and “visual approach only.” In addition, the symbology on the approaches differs in a handful of ways.

“The FMS-guided visual provides a lateral and vertical path from a fix fairly close to the airport all the way down to the runway,” says Johnson. “You can hand fly them or couple them to the autopilot.”

Visual into KTEB

One of the first guided visual approaches was created for the descent to Runway 1 at Teterboro Airport (KTEB) in New Jersey.

The airport sits in a very industrialized area with the runway blending into warehouses and business parks. Honeywell provides a video of the visual approach on its website that illustrates the value of having that helping hand. Having the extra vertical and lateral guidance from a mathematically created visual procedure allows pilots to better manage their approach, configuring the aircraft in an expedient manner to avoid “coming in high and hot” in an improperly configured aircraft.

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This is quite helpful when the aircraft needs to circle to land, says Carey Miller, pilot and senior manager of technical sales at Honeywell.

“Going into Runway 1 at Teterboro on the visual, you are not aligned with the VASI,” Miller says. “There is no vertical guidance, which can lead to a dive to the runway. Add a moonless night or gusty winds, and it can be quite challenging. Not being able to see the airport is a detriment to your energy management. The visual approaches, when coupled to the autopilot, eliminate the guesswork and the overbanking tendency that can lead to stalls.”

Adds Johnson: “The aircraft will fly constant radius turns, [and] you will be on the same ground track every time because the computer knows how to manage the vertical and lateral path. It gets rid of the pilot drifting down or turning early because of the winds.”

Airspace Guidance

The guided visual procedures created thus far have come from suggestions from Honeywell customers, including a visual approach to Chicago Executive/Prospect Heights Airport in Wheeling, Illinois (KPWK). KPWK is in Class D airspace, 8 nm from Chicago O’Hare International Airport (KORD). The Class B airspace for KORD sits above KPWK. There is a V-shaped cutout with various altitudes over KPWK.

The guided visual can help the pilot avoid clipping the Class B airspace during the circle to land—and the dreaded phone call with ATC that results.

The Creative Process

Each approach is created using software tools that take into account the airspace and terrain at the airport, then test flown in simulators to check for flyability.

According to Johnson, the suggestions for where to offer the guided visual approaches come from their customers.

“There are a lot of secondary and regional airports in the U.S. that have both terrain and airspace considerations that make visual approaches very challenging,” says Johnson. “For example, Van Nuys, California [KVNY], has both airspace challenges and a ridge nearby.”

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In some cases, the team may opt to create a visual approach as an overlay to improve safety at airports where closely spaced simultaneous approaches are in use. As this issue was going to press, Honeywell was working on an approach to Runway 28R/L at San Francisco International Airport (KSFO). The visual approach has a briefing sheet with textual guidance, and Honeywell has literally drawn a picture of it.

During development each procedure is flown in a simulator, using a specific briefing sheet that is checked and double-checked for accuracy and usability. Each approach has the ability to be coupled with the autopilot.

Miller cautions it is important to recognize that the visual procedures are not considered instrument approaches in the traditional sense.

“Do not request it as an approach, because ATC will not be aware of it,” Miller says. This information is emphasized on the procedure briefing sheet that accompanies each guided visual approach.

The guided visual approach is loaded in the FMS just like an instrument approach. The pilots can access them with a few pushes of a button, just as they do Jeppesen approaches.

“To use the visual approaches, the customer needs to have a Honeywell-equipped aircraft, and in addition to the FMS database, for an additional $2,000 per year they receive the visual approaches,” says Miller.

To request an approach, contact Honeywell at FTS@honeywell.com. It takes approximately four weeks to put one together.

Coming Full Circle

In many ways, the visual approach procedures represent a modern treatment to the first approaches created by Elrey Jeppesen—yes, that Jeppesen—who became a pilot in 1925 at the age of 18. At the time, there was no such thing as maps purpose-built for aviation. Pilots relied on road maps—which often weren’t terribly accurate, following railroad tracks from town to town or by pilotage and dead reckoning.

In 1925, Jeppesen went to work as a survey pilot and by 1930 was working for Boeing Air Transport, the precursor to United Airlines. This was decades before air traffic control and electronic navigation systems were created. Jeppesen bought a small notebook and filled it with information about the routes he flew. In it there were drawings of runways and airports and information that pilots needed to know, like the elevation of water towers, telephone numbers of farmers who would provide weather reports, and dimensions of the runway and its distance from the nearest city.

In 1934, this evolved into the Jeppesen Company and the notebook into the en route charts and terminal area procedures we know today. Much of Jeppesen’s flying was done in the Pacific Northwest. The Museum of Flight in Seattle is the keeper of the Elrey B. Jeppesen Collection, and for many years there was a replica of his first notebook on display in the Red Barn.

We think Captain Jepp would appreciate how far the approaches he inspired have come.

This column first appeared in the January-February 2024/Issue 945 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Honeywell Crafts Safer Approaches Through Technology appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

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Shopping malls have long been popular stops for road trippers but they also make sense for aviators because there are usually airports nearby. In some cases the airspace might be challenging but worth the extra work given the potential time savings. Some of the malls listed here represent watersheds in retail development. The airports also have interesting stories that pilots are likely to appreciate.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (KMSP)

Mall of America

Bloomington, Minnesota

While not everyone is up for the challenge of landing at a busy commercial airport like KMSP, and airport officials “encourage” private and corporate flights to use the area’s feeder airports, its proximity to the destination might tempt you. The mall, the largest in the U.S., which includes a Nickelodeon Experience theme park, is essentially across the road from the airport. If you haven’t talked to ATC lately and feel out of practice, you might try South St. Paul Municipal (KSGS) about 13 statute miles to the east or Flying Cloud (KFCM), about the same distance west.

Teterboro Airport (KTEB)

American Dream

East Rutherford, New Jersey

Teterboro sits seemingly wedged into an impossibly dense industrial zone within New York airspace, which is among the nation’s busiest. It is also clearly corporate jet territory. Peering through the airport fence one is hard-pressed to spot small piston aircraft. But you certainly can land there. Just be on your toes. Once on the ground, you will be just a few miles from the American Dream Mall, a project that for years looked like it would never open. Today it is famous for its indoor ski slope, waterpark and Ferris wheel.

Van Nuys Airport (KVNY)

Westfield Fashion Square

Sherman Oaks, California

This mall isn’t as vast as some others in this group—some reviewers even call it “intimate.” But it is easily big enough to fill your day with shopping. Best of all it is only about 10 minutes from Van Nuys Airport, which opened in 1928 and is packed with aviation history. The field hosted P-38 Lightning squadrons during World War II and Air National Guard F-86 Sabres during the 1950s. Aviation legend Clay Lacy helped develop and market the early Lear 23 jets, essentially creating the business jet industry. His company, Clay Lacy Aviation, is still based there. 

Sugar Land Regional Airport (KSGR)

The Galleria

Houston, Texas

Known for its barrel-vaulted glass roof and ice rink, this mall was a big deal when it opened in 1970. Conceived by real estate developer Gerald Hines and inspired by the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping arcade in Milan, it is the largest mall in Texas—which says a lot— and among the top 10 in the U.S. Sugar Land Airport was a privately owned field when it opened in the early 1950s as Hull Field, named for Dr. Donald Hull, an oral surgeon who worked for the department of corrections and commuted by air across the state providing dental care to prisoners. Decades later the City of Sugar Land acquired the airport. 

Opa Locka Executive Airport (KOPF)

Aventura Mall

Aventura, Florida

Aventura Mall is known for its extensive skylight roofs and a huge outdoor tower with spiral slides for people to ride. Founded in 1927 by aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss, the airport’s early history includes Navy dirigible operations. The U.S. airships Akron and Macon operated there and the German Graf Zeppelin also made a highly publicized visit. The airport’s blimp hangar housed Cuban refugees during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift and served as a temporary workshop for the artist Christo during his 1983 “Surrounded Islands” project in Biscayne Bay. Several “Miami Vice” episodes used the airport as a backdrop and the hangar, after falling into disrepair, was blown up in 1994 for the final sequence of the film “Bad Boys,” according to the Miami-Dade Aviation Department.

The post Staging a Black Friday Fly-In: Airports Near Shopping Malls appeared first on FLYING Magazine.