Circling Approaches At Night
I am showing my age here but have to admit that circling approaches at night in IMC to a destination OCTA without DME must be one of the most dangerous procedures.
Any procedure that provides for a straight in approach is preferable.
Most of us who started out in GA charter or Reg 203 operations RPT will understand.
One thing that most of the new generation of pilots may not know is that the British pioneered the Cat 1 and above operations with the Trident 1c in the 1960's. This was later designed into Concorde.
Many years ago I asked an employee of the Department of Changing names to explain why most of the approaches were designed to put you into a circling approach once visual. He explained that the rationale was to place you in a position where you could follow the traffic pattern to conform with GA aircraft.
I wonder how many pilots remember the blue and yellow sectors on the VAR/VOR analoge instruments.
Or the old ADF frequency selectors that were akin to finding an AM radio station. Co channel interference, night effect and the ADF needle pointing to electrical activity created by CB's.
The bottom line is that any form of straight in approach had got to be easier than circling.