HC - spot on, as ever.
At the risk of being contentious I will say that there is nothing wrong with the current ARA (look at the past 25 years for supporting data) but what IS wrong is the "we must land from this" attitude. DB is correct in saying that "we are just taking people to work" but to make it more complex makes my brain hurt. Why not just mandate an ARA for all night approaches? Pop out at the same place in space every time, then get on with it OR go around and go home. Easy, really.
BTW it has never been OK to descend below MDA until established on Final, which implies a stabilised approach - I have no idea how it became "normal" to descend below MDA without a sight picture of the landing site. Not in my aircraft anyway.
Last edited by Training Centre; 27th Aug 2009 at 12:33.