Originally Posted by
Lantirn
The only common here is the wording “circle” that confuses many people. Circling minima have other reasons to be there, such as technical reasons, either high terrain not justifying straight in minima or offset procedures, but also practical reasons when you really need to circle in marginal weather, with safe obstacle clearance in a large radius from thresholds and safe escape manueuvering towards the runway during a missed approach, and all of this is called an instrument approach.
This part confuses me a bit. So, circling minima are there for when the weather is marginal, I get that. But when the ceiling is
below such MDA (designed for marginal weather), it’s fine because you are visual at one point of the straight-in approach?
Why do we even have circling minima then? Why not be
practical and every time instead of applying the circling minima, shoot a straight in approach, and ask for a visual once you’re out of the clouds?