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Originally Posted by butt  I hear they're going to eventually change all GPS approaches to say RNAV, as well. I've always wondered, though, why they don't just change them all at once. Why do they have to "slowly" change them? What more do they have to do than just add a word or two on the chart? |
It's more difficult than just doing a search and replace in Word.
The Flight Procedures folks are the ones who design the approaches, but they don't draw the pictures. That privilege belongs to the chart makers, which used to be NOS for the government, but now is NACO. Unless things have changed recently, the approach only truly existed as a form that was filled out and put in a physical file cabinet. Changing the approach name probably means making all those physical changes on the physical forms.
They have to be careful; not all ILS' have a LOC approach at all, so you just can't change all the names without looking at the approach. Too, they often store up changes to an approach and make them all at once when the next revision comes out. This might be one of those times.