Every student who has flown a right-hand circuit into Wilson's Runway 07 knows the Bomas side of the approach by feel before they know it by number. The convention centre, the treeline, the point where the instructor says "start your descent about here."
That feel just got a new floor under it. KCAA has issued notice S31/26, effective 28 July 2026, and it changes the altitudes you are required to hold on the way in.
The Short Version
- KCAA notice S31/26, effective 28 July 2026, raises the minimum altitudes for aircraft arriving at Wilson from the Bomas side and replaces an earlier 2025 version of the same notice.
- Aircraft must be above 6,600ft AMSL passing the Monastery reporting point, and must not cross the Bomas International Convention Centre (BICC) below 6,300ft AMSL when landing on Runway 07. No orbiting past Monastery below 6,300ft AMSL is permitted.
- Aircraft on departures affected by the State House routing must fly the published State House departure procedure exactly, and call Wilson tower immediately if unable to comply.
- Wilson's two main runways now operate on daylight hours only, a change that follows a run of incidents at the airport this year.
- Kenyan press coverage ties the change to two things: illegal building encroachment around the airport's approach and departure paths, and a March 2026 runway excursion that exposed gaps in the airport's emergency response.
What the notice actually requires
Start with the numbers, because they are the part you will actually fly. Coverage of KCAA notice S31/26 in The Standard reports that aircraft landing from the Bomas side must be above 6,600ft AMSL as they pass Monastery, the VFR reporting point roughly 4nm from the Runway 07 threshold that Wilson pilots already use as a standard call-in fix.
Continuing inbound, the same coverage reports that aircraft must not cross the Bomas International Convention Centre below 6,300ft AMSL when landing on Runway 07, and that no orbiting is permitted past Monastery below 6,300ft AMSL. Wilson's field elevation is 5,546ft AMSL, so both figures sit comfortably above the ground, but they are noticeably higher than the altitudes pilots flying this approach have been used to.
The notice also covers departures. Flights affected by the State House routing are required to fly the published State House departure procedure precisely, and to advise Wilson tower immediately if they are unable to comply, rather than improvising a workaround in the air.
Read the shape of that profile carefully before your next flight. The floors get lower as you get closer to the runway, which is normal for any approach, but the actual numbers at each point are higher than what a lot of currently-rated Wilson pilots learned their circuit on.
If your last Bomas-side arrival was flown before 28 July, do not assume your habit altitude is still the legal one.
Daylight-only hours on the two main runways
The second half of the notice is a scheduling change, not an altitude one. Wilson's two primary runways now operate during daylight hours only, a restriction that did not exist in the same form before this notice.
For a training operation, that is a planning constraint as much as a safety one. A late-afternoon cross-country return that used to have some margin against last light now needs to be planned against a harder cutoff, and a school running currency or checkride flights close to dusk needs to rebuild its scheduling assumptions around it.
Our piece on Wilson ground movements covers the taxi-side hotspots that catch new pilots. This notice adds an airborne-side constraint on top of that, and the two are worth knowing together if Wilson is your home field.
Why this happened now
KCAA notices do not appear from nowhere, and the context Kenyan press coverage gives for S31/26 is worth understanding rather than skipping past. Two threads run through the reporting.
The first is encroachment. Coverage from The Star reports that illegal building construction near Wilson's approach and departure paths, including work tied to the Bomas of Kenya redevelopment, has pushed more than 40 structures around the airport above their approved height limits.
Raising the minimum altitude over that area is a direct response to obstacles that were not supposed to be there in the first place, not a change made for its own sake.
The second thread is a specific incident. On 20 March 2026, a Safarilink-branded flight operated by ALS Limited, a DHC-8-102 arriving from Kisumu with 34 passengers and five crew aboard, suffered a runway excursion while landing at Wilson at around 2055 hours, well after dark.
Everyone on board walked away, but the aftermath was not clean.
The part of the story that is not about altitude at all
Here is where the daylight-only rule connects back to the March incident, and it is worth being direct about it. That landing happened at night, and reporting on the incident's aftermath describes lawmakers raising concerns that emergency response did not meet the benchmark expected of it, with passengers left to evacuate largely on their own before organised assistance arrived.
KCAA itself acknowledged lapses in the response. That is a serious admission for a regulator to make in public, and it did not happen in isolation from the rule changes that followed.
Put the two facts next to each other and the daylight-only restriction on Wilson's main runways stops looking arbitrary. It reads as a direct move to reduce the odds of another low-visibility incident happening while the airport's own emergency response capability is still being rebuilt.
The opinion part
Here is the one thing worth saying plainly rather than dancing around. An altitude floor and a daylight cutoff do not fix an obstacle problem or an emergency response gap.
They buy margin while the underlying issues, illegal structures around the approach paths and response times that did not meet the standard, actually get addressed. Treat this notice as exactly that: a margin-buying measure, not a solved problem.
Fly the new numbers precisely, and do not let "the rules changed" become a reason to stop asking what your school and your instructor know about the airport's current obstacle picture and its actual emergency response capability, because that picture is still moving.
The instructor's side of this
A student pilot cannot be expected to independently track a notice like S31/26. That job sits with the instructor and the Head of Training, and it is worth being explicit about what that responsibility actually looks like in practice.
Do not assume a student who soloed six months ago is flying the current numbers. Brief the change directly, in the same session where you would brief any other procedure update, and confirm the student can state both altitude floors and the reporting point they attach to without hesitation before their next Bomas-side arrival.
Log the briefing the same way you would log any other procedural change. If a checkride examiner asks a student to explain the Monastery and BICC floors and the student cannot, that is a training gap that traces back to the school, not a lapse in the student's memory.
What this means for your next Wilson flight
If you train or fly out of Wilson, treat this notice the same way you would treat any change to a procedure you fly regularly: confirm it with your instructor or Head of Training before your next flight, not after you notice something looks different from the cockpit.
Brief the new numbers the same way you brief a crosswind limit. Above 6,600ft AMSL at Monastery, not below 6,300ft AMSL crossing BICC on final for Runway 07, no orbiting past Monastery below that floor, and the State House departure procedure flown exactly as published with an immediate tower call if you cannot comply.
Build the daylight-hours restriction into your flight planning the same way you already build in fuel reserves. A cross-country return that is tight against last light is no longer a "we'll see how it goes" decision at Wilson.
It is a hard limit on when the runway is available to you at all.
What Wilson-based pilots are already saying
Talk to instructors and line pilots based at Wilson and the reaction to S31/26 is less about the altitude numbers themselves and more about the timing. Most people flying the field regularly already assumed something would change after March, and the general sentiment is relief that it landed as an altitude and hours restriction rather than a runway closure.
The other consistent thread is frustration that the underlying obstacle problem, the encroachment around the approach and departure paths, is the kind of thing a notice can work around but cannot actually fix. That frustration is fair, and it is worth carrying into how seriously you treat the new numbers rather than treating them as a box to tick.
Frequently asked questions
What altitude do I need to be at over Monastery on approach to Wilson's Runway 07?
Above 6,600ft AMSL, under KCAA notice S31/26, effective 28 July 2026.
Can I still orbit near Monastery if I need to lose altitude or sequence behind traffic?
Not below 6,300ft AMSL. The notice specifically prohibits orbiting past Monastery below that floor.
Does the daylight-only restriction apply to all of Wilson's runways?
Reporting on the notice describes it applying to Wilson's two main runways. Confirm the current scope with your school or KCAA directly before planning a flight close to last light.
Why did KCAA make this change?
Press coverage ties it to illegal building encroachment that has pushed structures near Wilson's approach and departure paths above approved height limits, and to a March 2026 runway excursion that exposed gaps in the airport's emergency response.
Do I need to fly a different departure if my route is affected by State House routing?
Yes. The notice requires flying the published State House departure procedure exactly, and calling Wilson tower immediately if you are unable to comply.
Key Takeaways
- KCAA notice S31/26, effective 28 July 2026, raises the arrival altitude floors for aircraft entering Wilson from the Bomas side: above 6,600ft AMSL at Monastery, not below 6,300ft AMSL crossing BICC for Runway 07.
- Wilson's two main runways now operate on daylight hours only.
- The change follows illegal building encroachment near Wilson's approach and departure paths and a March 2026 night-time runway excursion that exposed emergency response gaps KCAA has publicly acknowledged.
- Brief the new numbers before your next Wilson flight rather than assuming your existing habit altitude is still correct.
- Treat the notice as margin-buying while the underlying obstacle and response-time issues are addressed, not as a finished fix.