Jim Donohue wrote:
. . .
There appears no doubt in the direction of the FAA that the system
will go
entirely GPS eventually...but that point is still many years in the
future.
The present state is one of transition...changing from the procedures
of
VOR/DME to those of GPS. So every year more and more of the
procedures will
be GPS.

Agreed terminal approach GPS control is years down the road, but, isn't
the "free flight" initiative, which would allow airliners outside of
TRACON to route themselves, based on GPS transponders, pretty much
being fast tracked? Allegedly the system will gain significant
in-transit capacity so there's a big cost savings envisioned.