IFR minimums for back-course approaches typically are about the same as for circling approaches following a precision ILS. After a confusing series of S-turns, he gave up and followed the coastline to Monterey. Like most of us, he had read about back-course approaches but never actually flown one. Navy fighter pilot was flying his Bonanza into Monterey, Calif., in hazy VFR conditions, and decided to simply track the back course to the proximity of the airport from the southwest until he was in close, then join the normal pattern. A large accumulation of hours doesn’t immunize pilots to the confusion of BC. You might think experienced pilots could easily force their brains to overcome the puzzle of reverse sensing. In the case of the aforementioned Orange County approach, you’d simply set the front-course localizer heading of 193 degrees on the HSI, and fly the 013 degree radial just as if it was a front-course localizer. The OBS will deliver proper sensing with left for left and right for right. You simply set the front course heading under the pointer, and all will be forgiven. All the old analog HSIs and the current crop of digital, glass-panel-equipped airplanes, whether Garmin, Avidyne, Aspen, Sandel or some other manufacturer, have made BC approaches less of a problem. Right up front, it’s important to acknowledge that pilots flying behind HSIs have an advantage on back-course approaches. Fortunately, there were no other idiots up that early, so we were able to get in two practice back-course efforts to missed approaches before the tower shooed away our little Skyhawk. My instructor made it a point to insist one morning that we be in position to shoot the runway 1 back course to Santa Ana, Calif., at sunrise, the very moment the airport opened for business and a half hour before the parade of airline 737s began departing and arriving. The good news was that you could find practically any kind of approach you could imagine, and the Orange County back course was one of them. In short, Los Angeles airspace was (and still is) very busy. Collectively, there were something like 18 airports crammed into a fairly small area. The last three were predominately reserved for light aircraft, though Long Beach did have some airline operation. At one time in those questionably halcyon days, the Los Angeles Basin owned four of the 10 busiest airports in America: LAX, Van Nuys, Long Beach and Torrance. Then, as now, LA was one of the world’s busiest areas for air traffic, especially general aviation. I learned to fly in the Los Angeles Basin, good news and bad news, depending upon your point of view. For better or worse, I had a back-course approach in my backyard when I was working on my instrument rating in the ’70s.
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