would also dispute circling approaches being a relatively small part of the FFS training requirements. This may well be true for some operators who only fly into major international airfields, but there are many other operators who typically operate into airfields with very limited facilities where circling approaches are the order of the day. It is these operators who require extended FOVs, highly detailed databases etc
I agree. The present situation for circling approaches in simulators (I am more familar with the 737), is that instead of conducting the circling manoeuvre with the emphasis on watching the runway all the way from downwind to final, pilots are authorised to cheat a little and navigate around the circuit on instruments because otherwise a missed approach would always be the case once you lose sight of the runway as it passes your 90 degree.
I have observed crews building a lovely little picture on the MAP which Picasso would have been proud of, and they LNAV their way around the magenta line with head firmly glued inside. It works beautifully of course and may or may not be a safe policy in real life. I guess it is better than nothing at all, especially where the regulator demands a circling approach form part of the instrument rating test conducted in the simulator and pretends not to notice the crew are heads down typing away on the downwind leg to get the turning point on base entered into the CDU.
Yet I have seen crews castigated for being high turning final when they had no hope of picking the runway when the instructor has set the visibility to the published minimum which under Australian AIP is 4 kms for Cat C types.
On the other hand, if the pilot opts to extend downwind but still stay within the circling MDA safe area of ICAO 4.2 nm, to avoid the risk of getting too high on final, some instructors will say that is cheating!
While a circling approach with low MDA takes more skill than a normal 1500 ft visual circuit, especially if the chart limiting vis is fed into the equation, then surely a wider field of vision in the simulator is a significant factor in terms of flight safety. There is a saying that "get away with anything long enough, and the perceived risk diminishes." So it is with flogging around a circling approach on instruments simply because of a simulator limitation with side vision.