Had we been able to do the approach again we likely would have landed without a problem. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough fuel to shoot the approach again and still have enough to go to our alternate, which was back to our departure point, Salt Lake. When you are that close to the ground and are on the visual part of the approach a missed approach is not something you are really thinking about. We had no choice but to immediately go missed and start climbing back out of that valley.
Suddenly we unexpectedly lost all visual contact with the airport and ground as we went back into a cloud we didn’t know was there. We successfully executed the approach and saw the airport right at the missed approach point as advertised where we started to descend visually toward the runway. The non-precision VOR approach leads you into about a 700-foot decision height and 3 miles or so from the runway.
The surrounding terrain is ominous and the area often becomes quite turbulent. One such memory was a late night stormy approach down to minimums at Cody, Wyoming. The memories I seem to most often think about are largely experiences I had while night flying. It was heavy on the controls and challenging to make consistent nice landings but it is an awesome airplane and I really appreciate the chance I got to fly it for a few years. My memories of flying the airplane are plentiful and as I think back on those experiences I smile because it was not only fun but also very rewarding. The turbo prop twin engine EMB120 Brasilia I flew was reliable, stable, capable and a lot of fun to fly. It can also be uncomfortable and filled with anxiety when things are not going well. The views at night can be stunning and the air was often times nice and calm. Probably 60 percent of my total flight time there was at night and I found that I really enjoyed it. Most of it was accumulated during my time flying for a regional airline several years ago. I have plenty of night flying time in my log book.
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