SR20
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 68; Flight Crew Total 164; Flight Crew Type 71
Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Executed Go Around / Missed Approach
Airport; Environment - Non Weather Related
While on a circling approach to RWY 16 at 2R9 (Karnes County Airport); tall (approximately 50 foot high) billboards approximately 200' from the approach threshold of RWY deflected a 23K left quartering headwind upward at high velocity; causing 15K drop in indicated airspeed on short final.  The pilot and his IFR instructor decided to execute a go around.  Go around safely executed.  The placement of these billboards is hazardous to air navigation.  I am especially concerned about night or actual IMC landings here due to their location.
The reporter reviewed the commercial satellite imagery and agreed that his original estimate of their distance from the threshold was inaccurate.  They range in distance from about 800 feet for the southeast most of the four to about 1600 feet for the furthest.  Reporter advised they are each built atop a singular pole thus allowing the winds to swirl about them; the end result of the disturbance thus being highly irregular and; for practical purposes; unpredictable for the lay pilot.  He enhanced his original description of their encounter by adding that; in addition to the significant loss of airspeed; the aircraft also ballooned approximately 100 feet which further compromised the odds of a successful landing on the short runway.
An SR20 pilot experienced a sudden airspeed drop on short final to runway 16 at 2R9; attributing the loss to 23K quartering headwinds being deflected by four 50' tall billboards on short final to the runway.