Clarification about the term "GPS Shutdown"

Jürgen,

are you sure you know what you're talking about? Ever heard of
Cat. 3B Autoland? That's not even new.

I think the majority of airline landings are done by the
autopilot these days.

Or did you not mean what you wrote?

Hans-Georg

 

Same thing.

That's what the available evidence indicates.

It's extremely important for ships, and marine navigation requires this
precision.

Maybe, but that is their choice, not a requirement (in many cases).

Actually, they _can_ be replaced by a piece of silicon, for normal
flight. About the only purpose they serve is to handle extremely rare
exceptions, and to communicate on the radio.

No, there are other reasons why we should not shut down GPS. But this
is an additional reason, that much is true.

 

Jürgen,

Lufthansa recommends automatic landings. They seem to think that
the pilots should do their manual landings in the simulator.

Hans-Georg

 

What accuracy was used and needed prior to GPS was sufficiently high for the use.

 

Teh reality you should consider is the reality in which mariners have
successfully navigated for a couple centuries without GPS. Does GPS make it
better, faster, easier, more accurate? Yes. Can mariners function without it?
Absolutely. Any mariner who cannot, it not a mariner.

 

No. Sadly misinformed is all. Ignorance and assumption make a poor platform.

 

Requirements have evolved since then. Christopher Columbus didn't have
to worry about colliding with a supertanker on his way to America.

 

That's past history, not present reality.

 

I suppose you can't boil water over a fire either.

 

All ships carry 2 or three radars for navigation and collision avoidance.
Almost all fishing boats. Almost all sailboats and pleasure craft of a
'serious' size. Unlike aircraft, ships can reduce their speed considerably in
waters where there is more traffic.

eg: this issue is a repeat of sorts of the aviation issue. I don't know enough
about marine navigation and law to argue it to death, but to an even greater
degree than aviation, shipping can adapt quickly to a non-GPS world for the
contemplated emergency period.

Again, GPS is a blessing but its absence is not neccesarilly a curse.

 

However, he did have to worry on the way back. Of course all you had to
do was find the coast of a continent and then follow it but he was
almost killed in hostile area 100's of miles from where he needed to be.

Dale

 

Apparently they must carry more than that, now.

Unlike aircraft, ships weigh 100,000 tons and will continue to coast
unstoppably for miles after being "stopped." Just turning large ships
can be a challenge.

 

In those days it was possible to remain at a specific latitude, but
longitude was impossible to determine. If you knew you left land at 46°
north latitude, you could turn around and head back at the same latitude
and eventually find the same land. But if you moved to a different
latitude, you could sail indefinitely and never see any land. Many
sailors died this way.

 

Would this not be precisely why they might ***reduce their speed
considerably in waters where there is more traffic***?


("Unlike aircraft"...what's the stopping distance of a 727 at
altitude, by the way?)

 

all garbage snipped

 

Has a lot to do with the altitude...

 

There's a limit to how much they can slow down and still get the job
done.

That depends on what it hits.

 

No. That's all they carried before.

And GPS magically can stop a ship? Wow! I didn't know that!

 

Getouttahere. Really?

 

Yes.