Germany has published its first LPV (localizer performance with vertical guidance; GPS precision approach) approach in the AIP. It's at Braunschweig EDVE which is the homebase of the German CAA, LBA. At this point the DA is only at 400ft so no actual improvement over the non precision GPS approach.
There are 5 more coming in 2012 and 20 in 2013.
Information from this site. Here's the approach plate for EDVE RWY 28.
Any idea why it has such a high DH for an LPV?
Is that not the OCH shown not the DH ?
Yes, indeed the German Eurocontrol charts show OCA/OCH instead of DA/DH (made by non pilots for non pilots). However, in this case it doesn't matter because it's more than 200ft which is the legal minimum for us humble Cat I pilots.
My last IR check ride was with a Eurocontrol plate and I forgot about this and drove down to a DH of 195ft. The instructor found out because he asked me what my DH was and only after I told him I noticed. His response was: buy a Jeppesen subscription or better become friends with somebody who has it. 
To get the DH from the OCH, don't you have to bring runway lighting type into it?
I used to know this but have forgotten...
A quick google suggests that a whole pile of factors could enter into an OCH -> DH conversion.
The Jepp plate shown RNAV for EDVE RWY 26 with an LPV DH of 390 which is actually above the LNAV/VNAV of 300 and the LNAV of 382. Bizarre.
In the US, this occasionally happens where the LNAV/VNAV or LNAV minimums are lower than the LPV minimums. Often this is due to obstacles relatively close in the runway. Each of the three minima are evaluated using their own criteria for obstacles. In the USA, we use the TERPS standards. The LNAV minimum ROC (Required Obstacle Clearance) is a simple level surface and is set to 250 feet above the highest obstacle. If there is an obstacle that controls the MDA can be passed and with a step down fix, then a lower obstacle will control the MDA. In effect, this permits two different descent angles, one up to the step down and another once past it. A procedure that has vertical guidance must stick with a single GP angle, so can't take advantage of a step down. The LPV obstacle clearance surface (OCS) consists of a plane angled up at a lower angle than the glideslope. If any obstacle penetrates this OCS, the DH is moved back along the final approach course to the point where the obstacle height equals the OCS, and it is established on the GS above this point. This accomplishes two things, one it puts the obstacle in the visual segment so you can see and avoid it. It also provides a cushion in the event you execute a miss as the aircraft should remain above the obstacle, even with the allowed sink. The LNAV/VNAV OCS is actually broken into two surfaces, one that is level and starts at the runway and intersects a plane with an angled slope that starts typically about 1300 meters from the threshold and angles up at a lower angle than the GS. The different geometries end up occasionally favoring the LNAV/VNAV over the LPV in terms of a lower DH and more often the LNAV witha step down over the LNAV/VNAV. It all depends on where the obstacles are.
I agree but I don't remember any in the US (New England area) where there was such a large difference between DH on the ILS and the LPV (190ft here). I am by no means an expert but I thought that ILS and LPVs were established using similar criteria for obstacle clearance.
I am pretty sure this is just a very conservative test of LPV. Braunschweig is the research airport of Germany and the home of the CAA. It's flat land, no obstacles there.
It's flat land, no obstacles there.
Have you looked at the chart you posted? There is a 357 feet tall obstacle (I know it well as I fly to EDVE at least once per week) underneath the flightpath a short distance from MAPT...
Some years ago I have seen the badly damaged C421 at EDVE that had flown through the tree tops on short final to runway 26 (luckily these trees no longer exist since the recent runway extension). But I assume the pilot (whom I know) did not really strictly observe the minimum. He told me that he didn't actually feel the impact (he never saw the trees either, such was the weather...) but was wondering about the strange "christmas tree smell" shortly before touchdown when the pine needles were blown into the turbochargers that also supply the cabin air. Some guys are really lucky.
