A Low IFR Approach at KPWT

A warm front recently brought widespread IMC to the Seattle area, and because the freezing level had climbed to about 5000 ft., I had a good opportunity to fly a couple of approaches for practice.

Ride along as I hop from Boeing Field (KBFI) in Seattle to nearby Bremerton National (KPWT), just across Puget Sound, for an RNAV (GPS) approach with a ceiling that was just 100 ft above the published DA of 200 ft. I let the GFC 600 autopilot fly the approach–my standard operating procedure when the weather is near minimums–so that I could could make sure that the airplane and avionics were properly set up. The GFC 600 also can fly a coupled missed approach, as you’ll see.

To learn more about how I prepare for IFR flights, see:

• Annotating IFR Charts
• Briefing IFR Procedures

As the video below shows, I spent most of the flight in the clouds, but the tops in the area were at about 3500 ft., and I was able to cloud surf in an interesting sky for a little while.

Note that I filed three-letter codes in the remarks section of my flight plan to help Seattle Approach Control anticipate the procedures that I wanted to fly. For an explanation of the codes you can use in the TRACON’s airspace, see this document (PDF).

VFR Landing at KPWT

Here’s a VFR approach and landing at Bremerton National Airport (KPWT) across Puget Sound west of Seattle. KPWT is a non-towered airport, so pilots self-announce their positions and intentions on the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) assigned to the airport.

You can learn about the recommended procedures for operating at non-towered airports in the U.S. in Advisory Circular AC 90-66B: Non-Towered Airport Flight Operations.

More details here at BruceAir: Operations at Non-Towered Airports.