EGLCLCYLondon, United Kingdom
London City Airport
A 5.5° glide path into the London Docklands — aircraft need specific approval.
19 ftElevation
09/27 · 1,508 mRunway
5.5° glide pathKnown for
What to watch out for
- The glide path is 5.5° — nearly double the standard 3.0°. Only aircraft whose flight manual contains approved procedures for approaches of 5.5° or steeper may use the airport.
- That rules out most airliners: the largest types approved are the A220, Embraer E195-E2 and A318. The plate itself restricts the procedure to aircraft categories A, B and C.
- The runway is 1,508 m — short for jet ops — surrounded by water, with the Docklands towers close off the ends.
- At 140 kt ground speed the 5.5° path means roughly 1,365 ft/min of descent — more than double a normal ILS.
- The plate carries hard gates: you may not descend below 1,290 ft before I-LST DME 2.1, and radar-vectored traffic must be established on the localizer by DME 4.9.
Procedures
The numbers
- I-LST localizer
- 111.15 · CH 48Y
- Glide path
- 5.5° · ~585 ft/NM
- vs ~318 ft/NM on a 3.0° path
- Minima (3.0% climb gradient)
- OCA 380 (361)
- category-dependent rows on the plate
- Descent rate @ 140 kt
- ≈ 1,365 ft/min
- Missed approach
- DME 5.6 → NDB(L) LCY
- climb straight ahead to 2000, hold at LCY
- Runway
- 1,508 m
- TDZ lights mark the last 477 m
Flying it in the sim
- ·Use an approved type — A220 or Embraer E-Jet. An A320 is not authorized here in the real world.
- ·Arm the approach early and be configured before DME 4.9 — there is no room to get stabilized late.
- ·On a 5.5° path speed and glide are coupled — pitch holds the path, power holds the speed.
- ·The missed approach is a climbing left turn back to the LCY NDB at 2,000 ft — over central London.