I'll start with the first question:

I took some flying lessons up here at UAA, which was one of the original organizations involved with the Capstone program (others included the FAA and UPS Aviation Technologies). From what I remember them talking about and from a bit of reading I've done, Capstone basically took GPS and ADS-B and integrated them with a MFD displaying moving map/terrain information and in-cockpit weather information to give pilots additional situation awareness, helping to prevent traffic collisions and CFIT. That was Phase I, which was deployed (with much success) in the Lower Kuskokwim region of Alaska (Bethel).

Capstone Phase II took Phase I and added GPS-WAAS (for more accurate position information) and synthetic vision system, which took the 2D MFD and turned it into a 3D "flight simulator"-style display, in effect showing what the terrain ahead looks like regardless of the weather conditions.

After Phase II, news about the program died down--most of the available information about it was updated on UAA's and the FAA's Web sites in 2007.

Then I heard that Alaska was instituting "RNP" in the area that Capstone Phase II had been deployed in, and I began to wonder if there was a link between the two. I have yet to come up with a straight answer about what exactly RNP is, and this seems like the perfect place to ask such a question.

So, what is RNP?

Most definitions I find online seem to discuss it on a conceptual level in that it's basically a standard dictating the tolerance for non-ground-based navigation (i.e. GNSS). I'm interested in that, but I'm also interested in what it looks like in the cockpit. Are there new avionics (MFDs with moving maps and/or synthetic vision, like in Capstone Phase II, or HUDs that display tracks in the sky)? How are procedures different from non-RNP IFR flying?

Oh, and how does cat IIIC ILS figure in to all of this? Are AS's aircraft equipped with cat IIIC receivers? Does AS fly into any cat IIIC-equipped airports (with current procedures)? Have you ever landed in literally 0 visability? Does RNP replace or complement cat IIIC ? (I'm not sure it completely replaces it, since the minimums at JNU with RNP are still a 337-foot ceiling and one mile of visibility, from one article I read--but I'm not sure how to interpret this, hence why I'm asking here!)

OK, so that's one heck of a question to start off with. Hope it stimulates this thread, though!

Thanks again, AlaskaCoho, for your time!