This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
While flying VFR on a cloudless day I contacted the Seattle Boeing Field Tower (KBFI) over Kent for a VFR Kent Arrival.
The airport was in north flow at the time and I would ordinarily be assigned to straight in for 32L or 32R.
Since it was a nice day, the airport was busy and I was instructed to stay out of the Class D airspace and call again in five minutes.
On the Kent Arrival there are few options available for me to break off the approach since it occupies a narrow window between other Class B and Class D airports.
From my initial call I am about 30 seconds from entering the KBFI Class D airspace. I cannot turn left because I would immediately enter the airspace around SeaTac (SEA). Turning right will take me in the path of straight in aircraft to Renton (KRNT) and possibly into the Renton Class D airspace.
Fortunately, there were no aircraft going to Renton at that time and I was able to break off and come back about five minutes later to complete my approach and landing.
I believe that there are safer ways to handle this situation than rejecting the arriving aircraft on the Kent Arrival. The other VFR arrival procedures into KBFI (Vashon, Green Lake, and Bellevue arrivals) all have safe options to break off the approach since they are not as constrained as the Kent Arrival.
Controlling airport traffic by limiting arrivals from the other procedures while prioritizing arrivals from Kent would help.
If that is not possible, allowing the Kent Arrival traffic to continue while holding their altitude (1,100 MSL) and overflying 32R before entering the right pattern for 32R on the crosswind may provide a safer option.
Other options may exist that would allow the KBFI Tower to better handle Kent Arrival traffic, such as earlier reporting of intent by arriving aircraft so that the Tower can accommodate the arrival.
Primary Problem: Airspace Structure
ACN: 2129355
Making the initial call 30 seconds before entering the class D? Make the initial call 10nm out; then there’s time and space to maneuver and comply with a busy tower.
On a nice day VFR return call ATC before going under the outer ring. Fly at 1.4 Vs not Vc ( batoutahell )
Have a hour fuel reserve and an alternate.