Aspen, Colorado (KASE)
Aspen/Pitkin County Airport
Airport Environment
The Aspen Pitkin County airport is located just west of the Continental Divide, in the central Rocky Mountains of central Colorado. The airport is located near the south end of the narrow Roaring Fork Valley and is surrounded by steep mountainous terrain. Mountains rise above 14,000 feet MSL, within 10-12 nautical miles. Aspen is typically one-way in and one-way out.
The airport is served by the FAA public and an FAA Special procedure, however the public approaches are limited to daytime use only. Only the special approaches allow for nighttime use.
The FAA procedures are characterized by steep approach angles over high terrain (Triangle Peak), which can result in high rates of descent and higher airspeeds than are usually experienced by crews. Unless the operator has the authorization to fly the special procedures, you are limited to daylight operations, circle-to-land only.
NavShare Offering
Advancements in aircraft avionics have enabled Flight Tech to develop navigation procedures for properly equipped operators. These procedures take advantage of new navigational methods such as A-RNP (Advanced RNP), WAAS LPV, and RNP-AR (Authorization Required) to enable specially designed routing that fly over lower terrain, thereby reducing approach angles and airspeeds allowing aircraft to operate up to Category D speeds. The result is a predictable stabilized approach to lower weather minimums than traditionally available. Another benefit of the new PBN approaches is the use of RNAV guidance in the missed approach instead of conventional NAVAIDs, which can be unreliable due to their location.
Due to the possibility for low-level wind shear, another unique aspect of Aspen operations is planning for go-around below DA or MDA. This can result in the inability of the aircraft to continue on the published missed approach path due to terrain. To plan for this potential scenario, Flight Tech has also made available a guided balked landing extraction procedure to provide a safe terrain optimized path back to a hold. This procedure is encoded and may be retrieved from the FMS/ Nav Data Base and flown to RNP 0.3 accuracy.
A specialized Airport Familiarization and Procedure Training Program is also available for operators.
Weather Minimums
Flight Tech RNAV-M (LPV)
- DA 8,382’ (645’ HAT)
- 1-5/8 Mile Visibility
Flight Tech RNAV-N (RNP-AR 0.10)
- DA 8,274’ (537’ HAT)
- 1-1/4 Mile Visibility
