Approach Ceiling NDB 
Air Facts
JULY 23, 2025
Ceilings were 400 to 700 feet, with visibilities from one to four miles in rain and fog. This would necessitate an instrument approach at every stop—11 approaches in all. Eight of these would be non-precision VOR and fixed-card NDB approaches flown to minimums in a non-radar environment. He even kept score.
Air Facts
OCTOBER 30, 2024
Then, we’d meet in Signature’s lobby, IAD’s FBO, and go over the day’s lesson: destination, altitude, maneuvers, approaches, and completion standards. We flew the usual approaches: VOR, ILS, and the now extinct NDB. Like Jimmy Stewart in Strategic Air Command, we flew GCA approaches at Andrews AFB. We also flew in IMC.
Fear of Landing
JANUARY 3, 2025
On the 25th of December 2024, Azerbaijan Airlines flight 8243, a scheduled passenger flight from Baku, Azerbaijan to Grozny, Russia, crashed on approach to Aktau International Airport in Kazakhstan with 62 passengers and five crew on board. The flight crew requested an NDB approach to Grozny and were cleared for approach to runway 26.
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