Originally Posted by
bookworm
And it's a perfectly good way of getting into an airport without IAPs. I'm just not convinced that it's the best way (for ATC, the pilot, or anyone else) of getting into an airport where 99% of arrivals are "vectors for the ILS or report visual and by the way can you give me 160 to 4d?".
I think realistically the EIR is not for pilots who want to go into those type airports (i.e. the ones that stream 99% of traffic into a radar vectored ILS with a 'maintain 160 to 4d' speed) in marginal VFR (probably not at all).
Going in to the major air carrier airports and trying to transition to VFR in the middle of a STAR or at the IAF is not really going to work very well. At these airports I think you either need a full IR and be able to follow the procedures end to end or you need to drop out of IFR into a standard VFR arrival some distance out (this is clearly going to require somewhat better than EIR minimums to avoid visiting your alternate location). I have never had the 160 to 4d kind of requirement at a 'sleepy' airport (other than Shannon on the day the UK ATC system fell over and everyone was diverting in ... and it was OVC002 as well!).
Pace - yes of course there are European airports in tough terrain. Quite a lot have no approach at all, so yes you are in a valley under a cloud deck. Or at Sion making your VFR transition at FL170 with a steep visual approach down the mountain (now that the ILS is U/S). These things happen today and need some good judgement to avoid problems.
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I re-re-read the NPA and it does in fact say the transition point must be prior to the IAF