DFS introduces new approach procedure

According to Frank Brenner, Director Business Unit Control Centre at DFS, Frankfurt and Münster/Osnabrück airports will be the first, with the remaining international airports following suit by the end of the year. APV/baro-VNAV is a non-precision approach procedure where a navigation system on board the aircraft presents computed vertical guidance to the pilot. Unlike with a classical non-precision approach, the pilot performing an APV procedure uses a decision altitude instead of a minimum descent altitude and therefore reaches a lower minimum. Vertical guidance reduces the risk of controlled flights into terrain (CFIT) during non-precision approach procedures. The procedure can be used in addition to the existing RNAV area navigation GPS procedures, upon which APV/baro-VNAV is based. Pertinent information is published on the RNAV (GPS) approach charts, mainly concerning the decision altitude and the minimum temperature, below which pilots may no longer fly APV/baro-VNAV procedures without being equipped with temperature-correcting systems. DFS observes ICAO resolution A36-23 which states that approach procedures with vertical guidance (APV) must be implemented for all instrument runways either as the primary approach or as a back-up for precision approaches by 2016.