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Non-Tech : Bill Wexler's Dog Pound -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BelowTheCrowd who wrote (3144)	8/23/1999 11:29:00 AM
From: Don Westermeyer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10293

Michael, >Some GPS units doubtlessly will fail, at least temporarily. Mostly >it'll be the cheap handheld ones used for hiking/etc. >Any certified aviation unit is required to have updates done, so no >issue there. It's a very easy fix even if neccessary for most equipment. I'd say the military was probably more concerned than civilians anyway since GPS is used as a primary means of navigation on much of their aircraft. >Besides, most commercial aircraft don't even have GPS. Airlines are >very stingy about upgrading avionics, and a GPS addition to the >Flight Management System on most airliners is a 100K+ effort. Yes, most new aircraft have GPS installed though, especially if the aircraft will fly into oceanic/remote type areas (GPS is very cheap compared to other long range navigation like inertial reference systems). >Even on the newer ones, which have been delivered with GPS, there is >no approval for GPS as "sole means of navigation." The airplane must >have alternate navigation systems in place. Actually GPS has sort of a 'gray' area where it can be used as sole sensor over some oceanic routes. Some additional on ground checking has to be done to verify satellite coverage on the route. Navigaion systems and GPS in particular has cross-checking up the wazoo to make sure failure conditions are caught and annunciated. >And of course it's worth mentioning that GPS cannot be used for >precision approaches, which are the most critical piece of the >flight. The technology just isn't there yet... GPS is qualified to fly C129a approaches (non-precision GPS approach). I thought the rollover might cause some concern in this area but nothing happened. GPS in it's current form will not be used to fly precision approaches, it's just not reliable enough. In fact all the EM 'noise' out there (presumably from increased cell-phones) has been causing problems for GPS coverage in some areas like near the population centers on the west coast. Actually I think all the Y2k 'short' plays are long over now. A Y2K play (VIAS) was my first short sell.