Custard,
even that you know what you are doing
and that you get off on it, the fact remains: non-precision
and circling approaches are
significantly riskier. As Amos points out we're talking about min vis conditions, and prancing around maneuvering 'visual' at night in marginal vis, maybe with turbulence, with 400' terrain clearance: you are rolling the dice
A better pilot than you (or even me) has dogged it on a non-precision or circling approach. Not sure bout your figures, even so...this old practise, like NDB approaches, needs to be abandoned sooner rather than later. We are (most of us) living in a modern world. Not suggesting installing ILSs everywhere, in 2003 there is ample affordable technology / instruments available for any public transport aircraft capability for GPS RNAV with VNAV glideslope straight in approaches.
