Certain head-up guidance systems produced by Rockwell Collins can now be used to fly to lower Category I ILS approach minimums after the company last month obtained a special authorization from the FAA’s flight technology and procedures division. The approval enables operators that have already been certified for Category II operations using the Collins HGS to fly Category I ILS approaches to 1,400 feet RVR and a decision height of 150 feet (versus an 1,800-foot RVR and 200-foot DH without the FAA waiver). Dave Austin, senior director for HGS products at Rockwell Collins, credited the system’s “unique symbology” for allowing the manufacturer to obtain the Category I landing authorization. Collins’s HGS line includes flight-path vector, inertia caret, guidance cue and glideslope reference line. The FAA has also established a Category II RVR of 1,000 feet and DH of 100 feet as the new standard minimum for the Collins HGS. The authorizations do not require the use of an enhanced-vision system.