The article “Deep Dive into Mins” on Page 16 mentions a change earlier this year by the FAA, allowing us to fly faster than the approach category of our aircraft. Recall that if we’re on approach flying faster than our aircraft approach category, we should use minimums from the faster category. That’s still the guidance, but we’re now permitted to still use the lower category mins.
If we are flying an airplane that is certified in Category A, we may decide that we can fly the approach safely at 105 knots and logically we would use Category B minimums. In AIM 5-4-7.c. the FAA says it is now permissible to fly an approach at a higher speed that puts us in a higher category and still use the minimums of the airplane’s original category. In their example, a Category C airplane flying at 145 knots—a speed that puts it in approach Category D—could use C minimums especially if Category D minimums are not published. Of course, it would be interesting to know why there are no Category D minimums.
