Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

Circling, can you cross other runways?

Asked by: 1897 views FAA Regulations, Instrument Rating

If I am flying say VOR/ILS circle to runway 090 and there is another runway that intersects mine or a parallel runway , making a X II or T or any other configuration. Am I cleared automatically to cross or “overfly” the other runway(s)  without ATC clearance?

1 Answers



  1. John D Collins on Sep 21, 2018

    At a non towered airport, you will circle in the direction of the pattern and there are no other limitations. ATC does not provide circling instructions at a non towered airport.

    At a towered airport, you follow ATC instructions. So if they instruct you to circle left or to circle east of runway 2, that’s what you do. If the instructions are simply to circle to land or circle to a runway, the direction of circle is being left to the pilot or may be dictated by the approach chart, example circling north of runway 9 NA. There are no implied restrictions on crossing over runways in the circle maneuver unless explicitly stated by ATC.

    +4 Votes Thumb up 4 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.