I agree all your points except
Originally Posted by SadPole
The clues for it are in the transcript.
- well, for me it raises more questions than it answers!
FD - to pick up on your #501 - leaving aside any peculiar Eastern bloc 'ways', that Perm approach is more than capable of being flown without DME or radar, exactly the same way thousands of pilots have flown millions of such approaches. I would wager that our 'Ace of the Base' would also be more than happy to demonstrate a 'dive and drive' on that one. The whole point of the outbound timing is so that when you establish +/-5 on the i/b track you CAN descend to MDA. No need for any distance measuring equipment, just a stopwatch.