Originally Posted by
ironbutt57
the RNP AR has been fairly recent, and it takes you a bit west of the VOR final approach course through a valley where quite often a thunderstorm is happily doing it's thing, our airline had a CDA style procedure for the VOR flown in either FPA on the Airbus, or VS on the Boeing, scalloping was experienced but very slight, the visual sector of the approach was on a standard PAPI, never felt it was particularly demanding or otherwise...
The VOR radial goes directly over a 7,680' terrain point. The RNP AR track is 2.5 miles west of that point. Not much of a difference when TRWs are popping.
I have no doubt experienced pilots that are very familiar with the airport handle the VOR approach quite well. Nonetheless, it is archaic compared to the RNP AR approach. And, 1,100 meters vs. 2,800 meters visibility for CAT C is also significant, especially when the rain is coming down in a habitually polluted valley.