PA-46 Malibu/Malibu Mirage/Malibu Matrix
Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 25; Flight Crew Total 800; Flight Crew Type 100
Confusion
No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Chart Or Publication; Human Factors; Aircraft
I was preparing for a trip to DTS and looking at the approach plates. The RNAV (GPS) Runway 32 approach has a lowest minimum listed of 420 FT. In looking at the plate on my computer screen it was listed as an 'LP category' minima. I figured that was a typo for Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance (LPV) as I'd never heard of an Localizer Performance (LP) approach.I did a computer search and found some pertinent quotes from a navigation/data provider including: 'But even with the right hardware (WAAS supported GPS); you still can't fly an LP approach right now. That's because the [commercially provided] database does not support LP approaches. It's a completely new type of approach; and the provider is still working to integrate these into your normal update cycle. Their goal is to support LP approaches 'sometime soon;' so stay tuned.'I suspect very few active IFR pilots appreciate there are a significant number of published approaches that general aviation aircraft are incapable of flying. It sets up a situation where pilots could very easily bust minimums without knowing it.
While planning a future flight; a commercially rated pilot noted 'LP' minima on the RNAV/GPS approaches at his destination; an approach type with which he was unfamiliar and for which; a computer search revealed; his aircraft's commercially provided GPS database was unable to utilize.