[JYO] GPS-WAAS commissioned — new future for ILS-like approaches to airports everywher

GPS-WAAS commissioned — new future for ILS-like approaches to airports 
everywhere

FAA Administrator Marion Blakey (left) is briefed on how the WAAS system will 
be monitored from the FAA Command Center. 

During the WAAS press conference, AOPA President Boyer holds up a copy of 
"The Future is Now," a 1990 AOPA report to Congress arguing for civilian access 
to the GPS system. 

This map shows the more than 200 airports which already have published 
LNAV/VNAV approaches. 

The FAA Command Center in Herndon Virginia. The large wall monitor, second 
from the left, shows the coverage area and status of the WAAS system. 

WAAS-enabled receiver shows the system "in use" shortly after the FAA turned 
the system on at midnight EDT (0400Z). 

AOPA President Phil Boyer demonstrates a WAAS receiver to Dan Hanlon, FAA 
WAAS program manager, on the first day of system operation. 
July 10 — The FAA today at 12:01 a.m. EDT officially turned on the Wide Area 
Augmentation System (WAAS) to the GPS system. WAAS will provide ILS-like 
precision approaches to thousands of general aviation airports that don't have 
them 
today.
"This is just the first step," said AOPA President Phil Boyer during a press 
conference at the FAA Command Center in Herndon, Virginia. "But in the future, 
just try telling the family of a critically ill person who was picked up by 
an air ambulance at a community airport in bad weather that the expense and the 
time spent on developing WAAS was too much."
AOPA has been a strong WAAS advocate since the program's inception in 1995. 
The association has lobbied for WAAS in Congress and was a key instigator of an 
independent review of the program in 2000 that determined WAAS was necessary 
and technically feasible.
"Everywhere I go, GA pilots ask, 'How can we get an ILS at our airport?" said 
Boyer. "WAAS is the answer for providing precision approaches to all of those 
airports where ILS just isn't possible. And we can provide an approach with 
vertical guidance to each runway end."
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey admitted at the press conference that WAAS 
took longer and was more expensive than originally forecast.
"But we really are talking about rocket science here," she said. "We were 
doing things that had never been done before. The general aviation community 
will 
be the first to benefit from this system. I know you've been eager for this, 
and I applaud your patience."
WAAS sensors receive the signal broadcast by Global Positioning System (GPS) 
satellites, correct any errors, and rebroadcast the corrected signals to 
WAAS-enabled aircraft receivers, thereby enhancing the integrity, accuracy, 
relia
bility, and safety of the already highly accurate GPS signal.
The WAAS signal that was turned on today will give properly equipped aircraft 
vertical guidance for some 500 published procedures (LNAV/VNAV approaches) at 
more than 200 airports across the United States. Typical LNAV/VNAV approaches 
allow pilots to descend to 400 feet above the airport elevation in visibility 
down to 1.5 miles.
Later this year, when tighter lateral and vertical navigation (LPV) standards 
are implemented, pilots will be able to descend to minima as low as 250 feet 
in 3/4-mile visibility. (The lowest minima will require an obstruction-free 
environment near the airport and ground infrastructure such as approach lights, 
precision runway markings, and runway-parallel taxiways.)
Currently, two manufacturers of GA avionics — UPSAT and Chelton — have 
WAAS-certified receivers that can be used for "sole-source" IFR navigation, 
meaning 
no other navigation systems are required on the aircraft. UPSAT expects to 
receive certification for vertical navigation ("glideslope") within two months. 
Other manufacturers will be offering WAAS receivers soon.
"Now that there is a real, certified, and guaranteed signal in space, the 
people who build the boxes will invest the research and development into new 
WAAS 
receivers," Boyer said. "And the more that enter the market, the better the 
prices will become."
But Boyer said it was still incumbent on FAA to spread the benefits of the 
system so that it will be attractive for pilots to buy WAAS boxes. "Now that 
FAA 
has turned on the signal, the agency has to accelerate charting new 
approaches at those airports that don't have them now," he said. "At the 
present rate, 
it will take 30 years to chart WAAS approaches into all airports. FAA must 
take innovative steps such as turning to the private sector to survey and 
design 
these approaches."
For the near future, the "gold standard" for approach guidance remains an 
instrument landing system (ILS). Ultimately though, in perhaps a decade's time, 
WAAS has the potential to offer ILS-quality information to pilots in a typical 
four-seat single-engine GA aircraft.
"During the initial operational capability phase, there will frequently be 
nonprecision approaches that have lower visibility minimums than WAAS will," 
said Randy Kenagy, AOPA's senior director of Advanced Technology. "But AOPA 
stands behind the FAA on the deployment of WAAS. As it ramps up and proves 
itself, 
it will offer advantages to pilots that will make them want to upgrade their 
equipment."
"To borrow an analogy from the computer industry, the WAAS initial 
operational capability phase is like version 1.0 software," said Kenagy. "It's 
neat, 
it's useful, and it will get better from here."

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