The plate says it’s an option. Your GPS software and database are up-to-date. Yet that new LP approach refuses to load. That could be a plus if you like vertical guidance.
Stalking the Elusive LP
With the advent of WAAS, the FAA developed approaches that provided vertical guidance while offering the lateral accuracy that previously was only available with an ILS or localizer approach. It was named LPV for Localizer Performance with Vertical and now sports decision heights as low as 200 feet.
Key Takeaways:
- LP approaches are a WAAS-enabled approach type providing tighter lateral guidance and potentially lower minimums than LNAV, but crucially lack vertical guidance, making them a GPS equivalent to a localizer-only approach.
- To fly an LP approach, aircraft require specific flight manual authorization and often a software upgrade for popular navigators, with some systems like the G1000 WAAS currently not supporting them.
- While LP approaches can offer a lower Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA), prioritizing them over LNAV approaches (as GPS systems do when available) means pilots forfeit advisory vertical guidance that might otherwise be present.
- Despite initial publication, the practical availability of LP approaches was significantly delayed due to issues with navigation database providers (e.g., Jeppesen) not supporting their coding in their standard specifications.
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