Procedure turn required?

You have not demonstrated that [it's safer]. To demonstrate an improvement in safety,
you need to compare a statistically significant number of samples using both
methods, and then look at the resulting accident rates for each method.

I'm not going to do that. Neither are you going to do the same for your
contention that it's best to simply turn final, irrespective of what the
regulations (including the opinion of FAA legal council) state.

So we are back to using reasoning to infer safety from (personal and
shared) experience.

Any maneuvering runs
the risk of causing an accident, and the more time spent maneuvering, the
greater the exposure to that risk

True. However, turns happen all the time. I'm not convinced that a
standard rate turn is so risky that an extra hundred degrees or two
makes a significant difference, all other things being equal.

That said, all other things are =not= equal. "My" turns are done at
altitude, flying towards protected airspace, in an area that has been
certified for such turns. "Your" turns are done flying towards the
final approach fix, at the commencement of a descent, off from the final
approach course, and in an area that has been proscribed by the FAA for
such turns (which means in this case that the terrain and airspace has
not been checked and approved for these turns).

It is those conditions that I contend make "your" turns less safe.

an extended turn away from one's destination
certainly could be more difficult than a prompt turn toward one's
destination.

I'm not sure I follow this reasoning, and I don't agree with what I
think you mean. A pilot who's on top of things should have no problem
with either turn (in terms of situational awareness) and one that's a
little behind could use the extra time flying away and then back,
establishing themselves on the FAC long before the FAF.

I suggest it does, you suggest it doesn't, and
neither of us has any justification for making such statements, other than
our own intuition.

Well, we have our own flight experience, and I assume that much of it is
similar.

If you simply intercept the approach course, how would you not wind up on
the approach course?

This paraphrases as "if you succeed, how could you have failed"? A
course interception involves some S-turning or anticipation, iow some
slop. The shallower the intercept, the less slop. Intercepting the FAC
at low altitude is a critical enough maneuver that slop should be
minimized. You need to be dead on. (fsvo "dead" However, turning
away from the FAC and =not= descending would allow slop to be safer.
The FAA has chosen 30 degrees as the amount of turn which balances slop
one way with slop the other way. I don't know whether the number
"should" be 30 degrees, 50 degrees, or 10 degrees, but I suspect the
TERPS designers have some data to back themselves up, and I'll trust
their design.

You haven't demonstrated "less safe". You simply
asserted it. There's a difference.

I have asserted it and given my reasoning. Reasoning isn't proof, and
isn't intended to be.

Jose
--
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