Just before another series of wet and windy fronts blew into the Pacific Northwest, I made a short flight north from Boeing Field (KBFI) in Seattle to the Skagit-Bayview airport (KBVS), a few miles northeast of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. Skagit-Bayview is a non-towered airport that is growing as a gateway to the San Juan Islands.

I chose to fly a VFR practice RNAV approach to RWY 11, which on a nice day provides views the San Juans and the mountains east of the Skagit River valley. On this day in early November, some of the fall colors were still visible.

Practicing approaches to airports like KBVS helps you appreciate the difference in the runway environment at small airports that don’t have an ILS approach. Although the RNAV RWY 11 approach offers LPV minimums to a DA like an ILS, there are no approach lights to help guide you, and runway lights and markings often also don’t match a typical bright lights-big city setup. The LPV minimums are accordingly a bit higher—at KBVS about 400 ft AGL with a visibility requirement of 1-¼ sm—a bump up from those typically associated with a category 1 ILS.