the hand dance that we do on the Boing needs recent practice.
I would have to agree with that.
I'd also have to agree with
410's interpretation of the directive - you have to use the highest automation available. Therefore GPS is a no-no if ILS is available.
Joe Linedriver decides he has to do his monthly practice NPA and to save unnecessary radio chatter with ATC, elects to do a LLZR rather than a VOR, (the LLZR following the same track as the ILS while many VORs adopt a completely different track). Unfortunately, many LLZR approaches have a slightly steeper profile than an ILS, so Joe gets a G/S warning because he's a little too high on the approach (remember, the G/S on the ILS is still transmitting). He submits the mandatory ASR after getting the G/S warning and someone - not, I hasten to add, from Flight Safety Department - sees all the safety reports coming in from practice NPAs and bans them.
My question is a simple one: even if you totally disregard the explanation for the 'too many' excursions on practice NPAs as described above, surely the perfect time to have 'incidents' is during
PRACTICE NPAs in cear blue skies, rather than when some poor sod is doing one for real in IMC, possibly with another problem - for the first time since the last time he practised ONE APPROACH in the Sim, when he was supposed to get it right or fail the *** exercise?