In our previous issue, we left you with some airborne homework so you are ready to fly one of the oldest types of radio navigation procedures: an NDB approach.
Firstly, bear in mind this discussion applies to flight simulation only. In the previous issue, we chose to fly the approach for Busselton/YBLN in Western Australia. It has been selected as it is freely available online and a relatively simple chart that will make it simpler to read and fly. A picture is worth a thousand words and this is very true of approach plates/charts. While there is a lot of printed information, let's focus on the main diagrams which provide a concise map view and vertical profile (Figure 1). We’ll look at these in some detail as we fly the approach.
You can easily see that the approach, in general terms, requires us to fly outbound from the Busselton NDB (386KHz) towards the northeast as we gradually descend to our minimum descent altitude (MDA). There is a Danger Area published in the northeast part of the approach, but for our purposes, we can ignore this complication. However, it is also worth noting the circular information box in the top-right of the chart (Figure 2). Airports are surrounded by terrain of different heights and this simple …
