LOC/DME-E Approach to Aspen KASE | Infamous Approach into Aspen

Have you heard of the LOC/DME-E at Aspen Airport? It's frequently listed as one of the more challenging approaches out there. Let's fly it!
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[@williamk5998]

Remind me to not fly the LOC/DME to KASE and I'll be fine 🙂

[@arctain1]

Thanks to Dan at FlightInsight, and his excellent ground school, I passed my IFR checkride this past weekend (9/23/23). Awesome course, extraordinary content, and thorough instruction. Highly recommend!!! And VOR approaches to circling were the most challenging part of the check-ride, by far - not because they are navigationally difficult (they are straightforward and simple), but because they can be a STEEP descent to low AGL. Mine was a 3000 to 1740 foot drop in 2.2 miles, perpendicular to the runway into the circle. It really is pushing the nose over and pointing it at the ground, under the hood, and leveling off quickly at MDA to find the runway before deciding to circle or go missed. It happens fast and at low AGL.

[@JakeSpeed1000]

Congratulations!

[@omarjones1460]

Great Job! I flew a Falcon 2000 into this airport many times. Next time try to avoid leveling off at intermediate altitudes. When it gets cold your true altitude can bring you close to the mountains. Consider temperature compensation corrections. Also note that this is a circling approach not due the angular difference between the approach course and the runway. It's considered a circle due to the decent gradient from the MDA to the touchdown zone being steeper than normal. Most times there's a tailwind right at the limit. Try this in a jet. The Engine failure procedure departing 33 is also interesting.

[@DirkLarien]

recording the mouse cursor and highlighting what is talked about would really elevate this.

[@Janet_Airlines802]

Im pretty new to flight sim. Started this year, have about 250 hours. I just tried a flight into KASE for the first time about 15 minutes ago. I was so surprised how steep the approach is. I’m definitely going to fly into this more often. I love hard approaches, PARO is one of my favorites.

[@jasonchipkin]

@4:51 Definite emphasis on how you can easily throw off the autopilot on some systems by switching nav modes while in AP nav. Heading mode first - switch nav source - then nav mode again.

[@vdeville]

Question! You mentioned in the video that it’s a slam dunk on the final decent at 6.5 degrees. I’m an instrument student getting ready for my IFR check ride. I’m being taught not to exceed 1000 ft/m to be stabilized. So wouldn’t it be better to set the VS to -950 ft/m, not meet the glide path and then just loose more altitude in the circle to land maneuver? A CFI once told me on the KHND RNAV-B approach to just follow the glide slope as the plate overrides that -1000 ft/m limit. Any insight on this from the professionals out there ? :)

[@vdeville]

Also isn’t the Cirrus SR22 a Cat B ?

[@flightinsight9111]

It's probably preferable to fly at no faster than -1000 fpm for those reasons. I wouldn't rely on the circling procedure for the altitude loss though, you ideally want to be in the best possible position to land when you're in circling conditions. The SR22 is a Cat A aircraft based on 1.3 VS0 which is 76 knots. As long as it's flown at 90 knots on the approach Cat A mins apply.

[@macbrush]

I didn't know about this airport, and flew into it on a CRJ 700, it was a handful, and ATC wasn't very helpful as well, one misapproach and then a good landing.

[@MisterNashies-mv2my]

Either I got lucky on flight sim or it's just a ton harder in real life. Landed in a Cessna 208 with no issues and I am far from being a consistently skilled lander.

[@yta7777777]

Great video, thank you! 6:07 Question- at 10k, you say "this is a circling only approach so we can go straight in or enter the pattern to bleed off more altitude". What are the details for the pattern? First I've heard of that on this approach.

[@Puritywave49]

Not that daunting. But you are amazing at explaining IFR procedures.

[@johnopalko5223]

I probably would have switched to green needles while I was still inbound to DBL, lest I forget when things get really busy. Just my preference.

[@gonetoearth2588]

Been there. Done this. No such thing as greasing a landing into KASE. 😂 Most challenging aspect of this approach imho is staying on speed…tough in a slick aircraft. Great video and overview!

[@wingsleveladventures]

Max did it :P

[@yta7777777]

@@wingsleveladventuresFunny, I just watched that video😊

[@weiniesail]

Really great tutorial and refresher!

[@bearlemley]

Flew in there for years in cat c & d jets. Not a the most difficult approach. Now the missed in cat c is a bit difficult but 90kts should make it much easier. I have found MHTG to be much more challenging. Step downs are common in many approaches into mountainous airports, as well as through complicated airspace. (See NE US)

[@Valentin_MeL]

Hmm, how you didn't get frozen windshield in sr22? It doesn't have windshild anti ice, right? Or maybe i don't know something how to avoid it. I once did a flight from KTEX telluride to KSEZ sedona in msfs 2020, temperature was minus 1 at airport, but in the simulator was summer. So i just thought that was just because of high elevation. After a takeoff a did a circle to gain altitude and at about 12000 feet i got really heave freazing in clouds. All windshield was frozen with only a small hole to look out. I first tried to get a bit lower to a bit wormer air but that didn't work out. I also turned on conditioning inside the plane to hot air. But i am not sure if that actually did something. I even tried to fly over the river. Air over them should be warmer, but it also didn't work. After i tried to gain altitude because in front of me was mauntains, but since i had fully loaded plane and freazing conditions. Plane barely manage to climb. It's really nice that sr 22 have synthetic vision + map. That help a lot to avoid mountains. And i actually become to understand sinthetic vision a bit more after that. At one moment i desided to engage autopilot and with higher speed at about 12000 feet or so, my wind shield started to defrost just as the plane. And all started to looks normal. I wasn't sure at that moment if i am not going to get the same conditions in sedona. And sedona doesn't have any ils or rnav approach at runway 21. it only has gps approach at runway 03, but that would be a tailwind for me. To avoid that i decided to turm to flagstaff - puliam. At least they have ils and rnav. later i configered the plane for landing and at final started preparation for landing. And at this moment frezing started again. Thanks to autopilot that wasn't a big problem. But after i tried to switch to flaps 30 and immediately heard stall warning. I switch power to max asap but stall warning didn't turn off, so i switched back to flaps 15. After i managed to gain some speed. I didn't know if autopilot is ok to autoland a plane in this conditions, So disengaged it and did a landing using synthetic vision. And for a surprice that was actually pretty smooth landing with a fully frozen windshield. 😨😁

[@TRIcoolbomb]

oh shit, I have never been in this conditions. But I'm always scared to endup in something remotely similar to yours

[@Valentin_MeL]

@@TRIcoolbomb Ye, this kind of situation everyone want to see only in the simulator. When you have frozen plane and not able to climb effectively at the same time surrounded by mountains. Synthetic vision in this case is good thing but it only give you a small screen of the terrain in front of you. I cannot see all the surrounding with it. And also it doesn't give an information about trees or any other obsticles. Well that's why i usually like to fly planes with full anti ice capabilities. Like cessna 208, cessna citation longitude, tbm930 and airliners like A320neo or B747-8. Oh that wasn't the first time when i got frozen windshield. First time was in zlin savage cub. At flight from sedona KSEZ to prescott KPRC. It's a really short flight. And when i was somewhere in the middle of the path at altitude from 7000 to 10000( i don't remember exactly) i got icing on a windshied. I started immideately descend and likely for me there was still a small unfrozen hole at windshild for me to navigate, when i get lower windshild stoped frezing, I was still manage to see the green beacon of the airport and when i was closer to runway frezing started to dissappear which helped a lot in landing. And that plane doen't have any anti ice capabilities and doesn't have synthetic vision.

[@arctain1]

The Anti-ice for the prop blows back onto the windscreen to ‘de-ice’ the screen.

[@Valentin_MeL]

@@arctain1 Hmm, i defenetely turned on anti ice in sr 22 back then. But it didn't do much for windshield. Actually it feels like it's only the body of the plane and not for the prop and windshield.

[@tsmith3392]

Cirrus SR22T with FIKI has separate TKS sprayers for windshield deice

[@senecapilot4878]

Thank you for the video. I am a commercial pilot with instrument rating i tried the approach on my batd and I had to missed 3 times before nailing the approach

[@wueong454]

Thank you for the lesson! Is the approach mode for autopilot is only for ILS or LPV?

[@guuiness]

Not familiar with his particular avionics, but I'm assuming autopilots are pretty standard. approach mode is ILS only, Nav mode is used for every other approach in the plane I fly.

[@leeyft]

What frequency device he is using..? Im so struggled with using a mouse to turn knobs 😅

[@kingmilton7198]

You can use your keyboard to change frequencies

[@leeyft]

@@kingmilton7198 oh! Thank you! I will try it!! 👍👍

[@vdeville]

Thanks!

[@kurtreber9813]

What computer are you using for the flight sim?

[@keeganyocum3300]

Try the Loc DME West approach into Innsbruck.