Good Riddance

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?

Key Takeaways:

• The FAA plans to significantly reduce the number of instrument approaches maintained in the US, particularly obsolete types like NDB approaches.
• Maintaining these approaches is expensive, requiring costly periodic physical surveys for obstacles (like trees or buildings) and flight checks to ensure accuracy.
• Modern aviation technology, such as GPS and electronic flight bags, has rendered many traditional approaches and paper charts obsolete for contemporary pilots.
• The author argues that it is fiscally irresponsible to continue maintaining rarely used approaches, suggesting only a few VOR approaches might be necessary as a backup.

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