[quibono]

I have a question related to aviation though not the submission itself please.

How often would you say you get to do a non-ILS landing? I often wonder how common these are outside of North America (where I hear visual approaches are apparently way more common than in Europe).

And related to that, how often do you see VOR approaches in the wild?

[jamesharding]

As for VOR approaches, I have done a handful in my career, especially into some of the smaller airports around Europe (Greek islands!), but these are gradually also being replaced with RNAV approaches generally.

On the A320 which I flew at the time, even VOR approaches were flown using a coded approach path, with the VOR needle itself being used for crosschecking. In the sim, we fly them still to make sure we remember how to, but they are quite rare these days!

[quibono]

Thank you!

[jamesharding]

Valid question!

The vast majority of approaches are still using an ILS. Pretty much the only time we would use an alternative approach (most often RNAV or LPV, and rarely VOR) would be if an ILS is not available.

That said, in the US especially, controllers are quite keen to offer a "visual approach" as it then relieves them of the duty to maintain separation from the aircraft in front. This is a cultural thing in the US, and the rest of the world does not operate this way. Even when flying a "visual approach" in the US, the ILS is usually still radiating, and we often still fly the approach using the autopilot coupled to the ILS, just maintaining our own separation from other traffic visually.