On 7/15/2005 11:10, Dave S wrote:

Mark,

It's pretty clear that your instructor is mistaken, as you have
cited chapter and verse of the pertinent regulatory article.

This also agrees with the FAA's Instrument Flying Handbook,
publication faa-h-8083, pages 8-23 and 8-24, in which the approach
category speeds are based on being 1.3 times the stall speed of the
aircraft in the landing configuration at gross weight. Stall speeds are
never predicated on ground speed. The error in doing so should be
readily apparent.

If your instructor is basing his instruction and recommendation on
"ground speed" then challenge him to show you chapter and verse where
ground speed is the acceptable determining factor. Your ground speed
comes into play on instrument approaces in timing the approach and in
determining your rate of descent for a given glidepath angle. Your
instructor, while well intentioned appears to be "reading too much into
the situation". Using a lower category than authorized can result in a
bust of minimums. Using a higher category than required can result in
not being able to take full advantage of lower minimums.

It would behoove you at this point to also read and know not only
the instrument PTS, but also the FAA Instrument Flying handbook as well
as whatever texts your instructor is using for your ground based
instruction.

Thank you. I have gone through the Instrument Flying Handbook (as well
as the Instrument Procedures Handbook, and others...). Although I haven't
yet gone through the PTS, it is on my list of things to get to.



Good Luck
Dave