More on Runway Number Changes

I love the title. It's a good look at what's coming...

As a followup to July 28th's post, I want to mention a runway numbering issue that happened in the Moncton FIR a while ago. At CYGR, Les Iles de la Madeleine, QC, the runway had been 08/26 for a while. The magnetic variation had changed in the area, requiring a renumbering of the runway. Neil, a regular reader, may be able to shed more light on how things happened the way they did, but it ended up being that the runway had been repainted to reflect the change, but the approaches were not renamed. Apparently, the data was still valid on them, but they still reflected the old runway numbers. Here was a conversation that would happen there fairly regularly for a short time until things settled out:

Pilot: Alpha Bravo Charlie requesting descent.
ATC: Alpha Bravo Charlie, Moncton, you're cleared to the Grindstone Airport for the straight-in LOC/BC DME runway 08 approach.
Pilot: Alpha Bravo Charlie requesting the contact approach.
ATC: Alpha Bravo Charlie, roger, you're cleared for the contact approach runway 07.

As if a normal runway numbering change isn't bad enough...