LIN...
You learn something new every day! I wasn't aware that category speeds were determined in such a different way, especially for Canada's next door neighbour, the good ol' US of A! I personally think that it makes more sense to determine your category based on what you're actually flying the maneuver at that day and not a speed you're supposed to be at when you're 50' AGL. Obviously, as I have said before, it doesn't matter what speed you're flying a maneuver at... if you can keep the airplane within the distance limits for the protection area, you will be safe! - So the FAA and PANS-OPS rules aren't necessarily bad, but I would argue that the faster you go, the more distance you use to maneuver, therefore, having more distance available to you is the safer option.
I just don't think I have enough pull with the FAA or ICAO to make any sort of change like that though! And I am biased as I'm only really familiar with TP 308 and Canadian rules.
Why can't we all agree on using one set of rules? Isn't that why we have ICAO?
I agree! It isn't as if the airplanes flown in Europe, or the USA, or Canada operate under different physics requiring extra/different rules to ensure obstacle clearance. I would say it'd take a heck of a lot of work to get everything down to one ICAO doc that every country that's a part of ICAO uses.... an enormous amount of work!