Can someone explain to me how RNAV approaches actually work?

Unless I’m completely mistaken I think you have something mixed up here - I believe the table you are showing has nothing to do with DH / MDA. This is the descent/timing conversion table which shows the corresponding descent rate for the given GP angle and air speed. In your example you would need a descent rate of 531 ft/min to follow the 3 degree glide path when flying 100 kts…

The DA/MDA is shown here:

1 Like