Disagreement with Tower – Opposite direction approach, Circle to land
Asked by: Patrick OBrian 3806 views Flight Instructor, Instrument Rating
I was flying with an instrument student in VFR conditions into KMER (Castle) in Atwater, CA. KMER is towered, non radar. They were taking off and landing 31 and we were doing the RNAV 13. We called tower and told him we were inbound, RNAV 13 at the IAF, circle to land. He told us to continue and report the FAF. We complied and he told us to "Continue, circle to the North, report when commencing circle." Again we complied and began circling at reasonable distance at MDA (640'). As we got closer to being downwind I told my student to climb closer to pattern altitude. At 850' the controller asked us if we were at minimums. I said we were 200' above. We continued to climb and at 1000' the controller angrily told us "on an opposite direction approach, circle to land, you need to stay at minumums; you are receiving vertical separation from traffic!" I simply replied "understood". The he only other traffic in the pattern was an aircraft well ahead of us turning base to final. On ground freq I inquired, " is that a published procedure for an opposite direction approach, circle to land?....orrr...." His response was that if I looked at the procedure that I'm required to maintain MDA and if I wanted a higher altitude that I would have to request it because it's a VFR altitude. WHAT?!!! First off, if you cleared me to circle, why in the world would there be any traffic over me? Secondly, in VFR conditions why wouldn't we all welcome an aircraft to climb up to traffic pattern while circling if able? Is there ANY merit to what this guy said? References are welcome - I'm willing to learn!