The FAA announced theyre gonna prune the umptyzillion instrument approaches maintained in the US. Its about time. After all, when was the last time you flew an NDB approach? In fact, when was the last time you flew an airplane with a working ADF that even could fly an NDB approach?
The FAA plans to reduce the number of instrument approaches, particularly obsolete ones like NDBs, due to the significant costs of maintaining and periodically recertifying them.
Maintenance expenses include regular physical surveys for natural and man-made obstacles, as well as actual flight checks to ensure the accuracy of published approach data.
Modern GPS technology and electronic navigation have largely superseded the need for many traditional, paper-chart-dependent approaches, leading the author to suggest retaining only a few VOR approaches for emergencies and mothballing the rest.
The FAA announced they’re gonna prune the umptyzillion instrument approaches maintained in the US. It’s about time. After all, when was the last time you flew an NDB approach? In fact, when was the last time you flew an airplane with a working ADF that even could fly an NDB approach?
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