King Air C90 E90
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Commercial
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100; Flight Crew Total 11000; Flight Crew Type 600
Other / Unknown
ATC Issue All Types
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure
An unsafe situation now exists because of the solution of the FAA to the near miss as the result of opposite direction traffic in Washington. They issued a blanket directive for all towers in the U.S. prohibiting any opposite direction arrivals or departures at any tower airports regardless of conditions. I was denied an ILS or RNAV approach to Runway 31 in Salem by Seattle Center and Salem Tower when the weather was near minimums for the Back Course 13 because of this ridiculous opposite direction traffic rule. I almost missed the approach because of this rule when the ILS or RNAV to 31 would have very easy to complete. I hope the FAA can take another look at this so called solution which may apply to high density airports but is totally irrelevant at small low traffic airports with precision approaches in only one direction.
C90 pilot requesting an opposite direction approach due to the recent FAA policy prohibiting same; indicated the policy was irrelevant a low density airports especially considering that many airports only have precision approach procedures in one direction.