Do you know about side-step approaches ? The concept is easy to understand: it starts with a standard approach to a given runway, at least until breaking below the clouds base. Then comes the funny part: a short segment to be flow visually, to line-up with and land on a different runway. No guidance, no auto-pilot, just manual, visual flying, at low altitude, and land.

Such procedures exist at several airports with parallel or nearly parallel runways. Apart from being fun and entertaining for pilots, they allow for a better traffic flow management. Typically, if a landing aircraft is slow to vacate the runway, and the second runway is available, the next aircraft can make the side-step, and avoid a go-around – which is much less fun to fly than a side-step.

Side-step approaches have also be in use at Zurich airport for years. Most landings take place on runway 14, and most departures on 28. The third runway, 16, has a 20 degrees offset with 14, but crosses 28 so both can’t be used simultaneously. However, all planes landing on 14 have to cross 28 during taxi.

To make things easier, ATC offered ILS 14 approach with side-step landing to 16, as long as there is no take-off on 28, thus simplifying the taxi procedures. I experienced it a couple of, time as passenger, and I have to say that it’s pretty impressive, particularly for those seated on the right side of the plane (the side-step is a right turn).

This procedure is not longer used in Zurich, after a couple of incidents where bad coordination resulted in loss separation minima. No collision, but planes taking-off flying low over the landing ones. Not good. Click here to read the investigation report about one of these incidents.

I selected three videos from YouTube to show you how funny these approaches are to fly. I did not found any filmed in Zurich. The first one is at Denver, at dusk, in a rather slow plane, flying a side-step to the right.

That one is slightly more… aggressive.

This one in Vienna is even more impressive, as it includes a very long low-level segment over the approach runway, and then a left turn to the landing runway.

Is not that cool ?