Formation Flyer,
Let me a my 2 cents worth ........
"UK Guidelines for approach minima? Pardon? They are rigidly set down in accordance with the a/c capabilities and your licence - if he doesnt know what they are then he shouldnt have the licence IMO. "
O.K. - I'm not familiar with the UK stuff so I can't say, but here in Canada, approach plates for specific airports have different minima for precision and non-precision approaches. Yes, to a degree the minima will be based on the a/c's groundspeed capability for non-precision appchs. However, I can't see what your licence !? has to do with minima guidelines !
Also, maybe I've misunderstood this guy I know, but I feel sure he was making some valid points given he has been though both systems and has over 2500 hrs !!
"Comm Failure? Procedures are set out according to ICAO but different countries and airfields have different procedures - as an instuctor he should *KNOW* where this stuff is...For instance Aerad details ALL countires comm failure procedures and often airport/approach specific procedures too. "
Again, I can't comment. Either I picked up on what he was telling me incorrectly. I have been informed whislt studying IR over here that procedures do differ country to country. I attended a 3 day IFR seminar over here run by a current Atlantic based RCAF SAR C-130 pilot who said he'll never accept a clearance unless it contains a provision to allow him to continue as planned to destination should a comm failure occur.
"Now this is *very* basic IR knowledge - certainly stuff I was taught on my course at OATS. I can only say that where he did his course obviously not up to scratch. However, I do agree that it is distinctively worrying that the course instructors did not feel this way...."
It's perhaps not my place to say where he trained, but let's just say it was somewhere rather close to home ..
Cheers,
C.G.