Actually, in the US, the issuance of an ATP conveys the same authorization as an “instrument rating” – but, of course, there can be restrictions issued as well, like "Circle to land NA on A330" (just as
aterpster indicated) or “Circle to land limited to VFR” which would be a limitation that is much broader in its application.
... and Desert185 … an excellent point, sir!!
We have 113 posts on how to do a circling approach. How many of you do not have the 1000/3 limitation on your ticket, and how many of you without the limitation work for a company who allows circling approaches, and how many of you have actually made a circling approach within the last year...in the airplane?
It is apparent that there is a growing concern about what kind of approaches should be able to be flown pretty much whenever, where ever someone wants. With the establishment of “airports” at locations to “better serve” the local residents of a particular area, and wanting to keep the cost to those residents to a minimum, a location is found that is cheap and more easily developed into something on which a landing strip can be constructed. Then someone has to come in and design an approach procedure that can accommodate airplanes … and it doesn’t take long before someone tries to bring in bigger airplanes, which brings more business into that location … and so on and so on. The destiny of such actions is that sometime in the future there is likely to be an attempt to get B747s or A380s into what was originally constructed as a fishing camp in some mountainous valley in central Alaska.
