Given a choice, chances are a pilot will pick a vertically guided approach over a non-precision approach. They’re easier to fly and the minimums are almost always lower. From a design perspective they also afford stricter obstacle clearance assurances. What’s not to love? That’s probably what the thought process was like that nearly led to a significant portion of non-precision approaches being cancelled or severely restricted in late 2017.
They’re technically still on the chopping block; although due to the significance of the impact they were granted an indefinite stay of execution until further study can be conducted. The motivation for this change is the FAA’s stated near-term priority to define flight-procedure criteria to increase the number of runways qualifying for vertically guided approaches—clearly a worthwhile goal. However, to jeopardize many non-precision approaches at the same time seems potentially misguided.
