Plain English Meaning

Instrument approaches that let the aircraft fly a path drawn directly between waypoints in the sky, instead of having to fly toward or away from a ground radio station. The aircraft's navigation system (usually GPS) figures out where it is and keeps it on the published path down to the runway.

Full Definition

Instrument approach procedures based on Area Navigation (RNAV), which allow an aircraft to fly a defined path between any two points in space rather than requiring the aircraft to track to or from a ground-based navigation station. RNAV approaches use signals from satellites (GPS), ground-based references (DME/DME, VOR/DME), or onboard inertial to compute the aircraft's and guide it along the published . Common types include (GPS) with , , , and LP , and RNAV (RNP) approaches that require additional aircraft and authorization.