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Here is a FAA CPL question:

To avoid landing at the wrong airport or on the wrong runway, a pilot should

  1. contact Unicom to get the latest field information.
  2. follow the instrument approach chart for the appropriate runway.
  3. contact tower for verification.

My thinking is that one should not be frequently confused about which runway they are landing on. If this does happen, then I have been thought that it's better to ask tower/ATC to make sure than to take chances, of course.

Apparently the correct answer is 2. So the FAA's position is that even if I am flying VFR I should have IFR charts open and flying an approach? That doesn't sound right to me.

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  • $\begingroup$ Commercial planes do get their location mixed up at times. There's an NTSB Safety Alert on the matter, SA-033: Landing at the Wrong Airport. $\endgroup$
    – Mast
    Commented 2 hours ago

1 Answer 1

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You're looking at a CPL question, not a PPL question. So yes the first tools to prevent landing at the wrong runway are the IFR instrument approach charts.

Most commercial flights (FAR 121/135), even in visual meteorological conditions, are performed under IFR, as mandated by the airline operating procedures (SOP) if not by local regulations.

In the rare cases of VFR approach, the instrument approach charts will be ready for use, should weather conditions at the destination airport require to switch to IFR.

See Are commercial VFR flights legal? and Can large aircraft go VFR?

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