Originally Posted by
Genghis the Engineer
You called a civilian instructor Sir ????
I think that NDB approaches have value, maybe for SA, although I'm not altogether convinced by your argument that they give better SA than other systems - I don't think it gives me anything I don't get from, say a VOR/DME.
But the NDB is the most basic bit of navigational technology imaginable. It costs a fraction to install and maintain what a VOR or ILS does, an NDB basically needs a few hundred pounds worth of hardware and a power supply. I'd argue that it's the best possible backup to GPS because it's the cheapest and most robust. Yes, it is also very hard work to fly, but on the other hand once you've flown a timed NDB approach, everything else is easy - so it's not a bad training tool.
G
To differentiate between speaking to him as the FIC instructor/examiner as opposed to speaking to him as the pretend student.