BE20 pilot reports descending below minimums while attempting to circle for landing at minimums off ...

Attributes
ACN	865924
Time
Date	200912
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	IWS.Airport
State Reference	TX
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Super King Air 200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Landing
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 43 Flight Crew Total 5315 Flight Crew Type 625
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter CFTT / CFIT

Narrative:

How problem arose: on the VOR D approach to iws; as I made my turn to circle I may have descended below MDA. I turned up downwind lost sight of the runway and executed a missed approach. I requested the GPS approach to iws; landing was uneventful. Low IFR IMC ceiling's were ragged. Eyes outside the cockpit when I had a visual on the runway. How it was discovered: as I made my turn to circle I glanced at my altimeter I was under 500 ft MSL and made the corrections. Climbed to MDA and executed missed approach. Human performance considerations: weather reports caused me to anticipate low visibility and a possible missed approach. Hindsight I should have planned to land at a different airport with an ILS. Actions/in actions: by not keeping up a better scan I may have descended below minimum. Keeping my IMC scan quicker will assist in preventing future episodes. Factors: the weather was forecast to improve prior to my arrival at iws. The weather did not improve upon arrival. In the future; I will make greater efforts; in the interest of safety; to keep my cockpit scan up to speed. Plan to use airports that have precision approaches when weather conditions are unfavorable.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BE20 pilot reports descending below minimums while attempting to circle for landing at minimums off the VOR D approach to IWS. A missed approach ensued and the next approach using a straight in GPS approach was successful.

Narrative: How problem arose: On the VOR D Approach to IWS; as I made my turn to circle I may have descended below MDA. I turned up downwind lost sight of the runway and executed a missed approach. I requested the GPS Approach to IWS; landing was uneventful. Low IFR IMC ceiling's were ragged. Eyes outside the cockpit when I had a visual on the runway. How it was discovered: As I made my turn to circle I glanced at my altimeter I was under 500 FT MSL and made the corrections. Climbed to MDA and executed missed approach. Human Performance Considerations: Weather reports caused me to anticipate low visibility and a possible missed approach. Hindsight I should have planned to land at a different airport with an ILS. Actions/In actions: By not keeping up a better scan I may have descended below minimum. Keeping my IMC scan quicker will assist in preventing future episodes. Factors: The weather was forecast to improve prior to my arrival at IWS. The weather did not improve upon arrival. In the future; I will make greater efforts; in the interest of safety; to keep my cockpit scan up to speed. Plan to use airports that have Precision approaches when weather conditions are unfavorable.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

BE20 pilot reports descending below minimums while attempting to circle for landing at minimums off the VOR D approach to iws. A missed approach ensued and the next approach using a straight in GPS approach was successful.