Santa, cleared to land runway 36, ceiling 300 feet.

December 24, 2009 4:55 PM

What does Santa need after a night of delivering presents in bad weather? An instrument approach to the North Pole.
posted by pjern (7 comments total)

On the animal-side of Santa's navigation: Bureau of Land Management's webcam at the Cosumnes River Preserve (south of Sacramento) captured a picture of a red-nosed deer, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have a page on Santa's Magical Reindeer (R.t. saintnicolas magicalus).
posted by filthy light thief at 5:16 PM on December 24, 2009

Oh, a solid north pole, how 20th century!
posted by qvantamon at 5:17 PM on December 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

Sully Claus?
posted by dhartung at 5:31 PM on December 24, 2009

Ok, it's Christmas eve. So I won't tell the one about Santa's check ride.

Go Rudolph!
posted by sea at 5:38 PM on December 24, 2009

What is Mrs. Claus's first name?
posted by Joe Beese at 6:03 PM on December 24, 2009

Cute, but completely unusable. You could do the hold at any arbitrary angle, since you would always be heading 360 inbound to the NDB no matter what direction you're actually flying. Also, 400 ft seems a little low for the decision height for a circling NDB approach.

Ah: 3. Approach may intersect runway at any angle.
posted by backseatpilot at 8:44 PM on December 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

Cute, but completely unusable. You could do the hold at any arbitrary angle, since you would always be heading 360 inbound to the NDB no matter what direction you're actually flying. Also, 400 ft seems a little low for the decision height for a circling NDB approach.

Ah: 3. Approach may intersect runway at any angle.

Yeah. The details are hilarious if you know anything about air navigation: "2. Magnetic compass unreliable; use true courses". And yes, all of the sample inbound courses depicted on the chart are at heading 360.
posted by spitefulcrow at 11:29 AM on December 26, 2009