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Earth shattering news: UK CAA says GPS is a Good Thing

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Navigation: The CAA’s New Thinking
If you have been a secret follower of the magenta line on your moving map you will be pleased to hear that this is now the recommended way to navigate. And if it packs up en route you are urged to call Radar or Distress and Diversion and not mess about with some arcane Lost Procedure.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Wow! I always assume the beloved magenta line is going to disappear and have VOR stations dialed in just in case. Bad practice, I suppose.

Tököl LHTL

WhiskeyPapa wrote:

I always assume the beloved magenta line is going to disappear

That is not an entirely unreasonable position. I have lost integrity in various places in Essex over the last few months, in a variety of aircraft. I assume that it’s jamming, either by lorry drivers or a rogue transmitter in the Chelmsford area.

I mentioned this is our Prague seminar and several people from different countries reported similar occurrences. There is even a research group at Bratislava University dedicated to this very issue.

GPS is great, but work needs to be done on its vulnerabilities.

EGKB Biggin Hill

EGKB Biggin Hill

Timothy wrote:

GPS is great, but work needs to be done on its vulnerabilities.

Did you had another backup? I rarely loose it on watch, SD on IPhone and SD on tablet at the same time, as long as they have been tracking before flight….

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

And if it packs up en route you are urged to call Radar or Distress and Diversion and not mess about with some arcane Lost Procedure.

I think this is the new stuff. All authorities surely have since long recognized the usefulness of GPS and moving maps (maybe not the UK?). But, they also say to bring along paper maps as backup. The idea here is that paper maps are no useful backup, but radar is. How useful is that? I would rather think an additional GPS would be a better backup, as radar requires radio contact. There is jamming of course.

The elephant is the circulation
ENVA ENOP ENMO, Norway

Whenever I have lost the approved unit, the Garmin GLO and iPad have continued to provide a position.

EGKB Biggin Hill

You can lose the lot.

I got this twice: 2004, down the middle of the Adriatic (KLN94 and two handhelds all lost fix and the track started rotating like a motor), and c. 2014 flying over Athens when KLN94, G496 and an Emtac GPS (the 1st and 3rd having their own separate rooftop antennae) all lost fixes. I then lost just the KLN94 for about an hour, at Padova Italy, and it didn’t regain a fix until over the Alps an hour or so later (the handhel(s) continued to work).

So it happens but in 2000 airborne hours is clearly very rare. Compared to losing position doing dead reckoning etc, it doesn’t even begin to compare.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I’ve lost all sorts, GPS, VOR, NDB, ILS, ADC, TACAN. I’ve had G1000 failures resulting in the use of iPad only for the iPad to fail as it, or the GPS source, has overheated.

However, I’ve never had a complete failure in the ability to safely navigate as, about 35 years ago Norman Buddin, my CFI (an ex-RAF Vampire and Hunter Pilot), taught me that it is only ‘brave people’ who rely upon one particular system when flying.

Last Edited by Dave_Phillips at 27 Sep 07:09
Fly safely
Various UK. Operate throughout Europe and Middle East, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

So it happens but in 2000 airborne hours is clearly very rare.

It depends where you go. Chelmsford appears to be a bad area. People at the Prague seminar reported that particular truck stops adjacent to particular approaches are a recurrent problem.

Also, TSO-146() boxes (ie SBAS capable) are more prone than your TSO-129() box because they have higher integrity criteria. Your KLN94 will fall somewhere between an iPad and a GTN in its signal requirement.

Also, your experiences from 2004 date from a time when it is more likely to have been a geometry/satellite failure problem than now, because we have much greater redundancy now, together with better monitoring and alerting.

So you can’t extrapolate from your personal experience to the whole of aviation.

EGKB Biggin Hill
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