Most missed approach procedures have a pilot navigate to a specific fix via a defined path.

As I was looking through approach plates the other day, I ran into one that didn’t do this. A first time I have noticed this on an approach plate (perhaps there are more out there, I just haven’t ran across them yet – does anyone know of others like this?).

Looking at the ILS or LOC RWY 7 at Chicago/Rockford Intl (KRFD), just out west of the Chicago metropolitan area, we find an approach that the missed approach does not send the pilot to a defined point if they need to go “missed.”

We can see in the notes section that “RADAR required” is a notation for this approach to be flown. This is a first hint that the pilot will not be authorized to fly this approach without being in contact with ATC and operating with RADAR services from them.

But looking at the approach, a pilot can find ways to “establish” onto the approach without ATC help using one of the IAFs or even using GPS to navigate to FOORD and executing a holding procedure entry.

So why is the pilot required to have RADAR services to fly this approach?

Well, it is in the missed approach where this becomes critical.

If we look at the box for themissed approach instructions, we see the following:

The instructions tell the pilot to “Climb to 3000 on heading 068 degrees” and then just expect radar vectors to wherever ATC sends you.

Surely, you would hope that you never encountered a loss of communications at this critical phase if you had to go missed!

Why am I sharing this in the blog today you might be asking. Well, I just found it interesting and thought other instrument pilots might find it so also.

There are lots of different procedures out there that might be slightly different than the approaches we all get used to flying in our local area or at our home airport. Reading the entire plate goes a long way, and sometimes, the reasons for some of those notes are different from what we might experience in other procedures we fly. In this case, just go missed, climb, follow the heading, and wait for ATC to tell you what to do next.