Clarification about the term "GPS Shutdown"

Aviation experience shows that backup systems often don't help.

What happens when radar breaks down? What are the backups?

Drawing upon the infinite quantity of fuel in your tanks.

It shouldn't, if it's primary navigation.

 

I know what they are. But how can they all be "primary"?

 

VFR is notoriously unreliable.

What happens if all of these stop working?

Can it do Cat III or transoceanic with ADF?

 

That seems a non-sequiter. What are you saying?

BTW, I'm not taking the opposite side of the discussion from you, just
adding my 1.5 ¢ worth on the discussion about navigating without GPS.

I too am angry about what is happening in the U.S. these days. Eugene
McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover would be proud.

Frank

 

Describe a few.

If they can afford missiles or other vehicles they can afford guidance
systems.

These can be done without GPS.

You have not given a single terrorism scenario that would be effectively
foiled by turning off GPS.

Whereas it's okay to depend on VOR, right?

The one thing you haven't done is provide a justification for turning
off GPS in the first place.

What's wrong with gyroscopes?

How did the German rockets ever get to England without GPS?

They don't use computers?

 

Not really, or not much. The combo can be had for ~115 USD plus shipping.

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=sextant&btnG=Froogle+Search&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=chronometer&btnG=Search+Froogle

Frank

 

I said within a cycle. That's 20 milliseconds in Europe.

Yes. But a diesel generator is not a UPS.

Nobody would be that stupid. Especially since it's so much easier to
just put a cheap clock in each bomb. Who needs GPS for that?

That is inevitable.

Terrorists are not usually crazy.

 

But Juergen mentioned neither of these.

 

I can just look under my desk, where several of them sit quietly.

But a diesel generator is not a UPS.

 

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message:

Time to wake up Bubba. He ain't never seen no big wreck before.

 

..

If you consider the equipment required to maintain RNP 10 across
the Pacific a luxury, then you must not run an airline.

Very few, if any, airlines are authorized to operate VFR.

Many airports in the world (including the USA) don't have ILS or
VOR approaches.

There is serious talk about decomissioning the ILS and VOR/DME
system in the not too distant future.
There's no sense maintaining all that expensive ground equipment
if GPS is sufficiently reliable.

The NDBs are already being decommissioned in the USA.

of choice.

To maintain RNP 10 tracks over the oceans, an INS needs an
update every six hours.
Currently, the only way to do that is with GPS.

IF, and only if, there's a CAT III certified ILS at the
destination.
Lots and lots of destinations don't have that now, and there
likely won't be any at all in the future.
ILSs are very expensive to build and maintain.

RNP 5 is required in Europe already; RNP 10 is required in the
Pacific.
I don't know how that's being done on 20 hour over-ocean legs
right now; perhaps they have to detour to get within range of
Alaska or Hawaii to get their six-hour fix.

But it won't be possible at all in the not too distant future.

It's generally possible for ATC to handle ONE airplane with
navigational problems - they simply give it more space.

That won't work if EVERYBODY's GPS is inoperative.

The days of Charles Lindbergh being the only person aloft over
the Atlantic are long gone.

 

At 400,000 per month.... that's a lot of sextants and reliable chronometers
as alternatives that aren't being manufactured. ;-)

Regards Frank,
-Sam

 

I just hate it when it's cloudy and I'm trying to orient myself with
the Sun, Moon or stars.... will on clowdy night, light pollution from
cities works pretty well.

 

Ref: http://www.dictionary.net/color

"Primary colors, those developed from the solar beam by the
prism, viz., red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and
violet, which are reduced by some authors to three, -- red,
green, and violet-blue. These three are sometimes called
fundamental colors."

 

I prefer to survive my voyages.

Captain Cook did not.

 

I agree with that. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to learn that
the Pentagon has contingency plans for invading Canada. Just because
there is a contingency plan it doesn't necessarily follow that the plan
is likely to be implemented. That's why I've dropped out of the threads
- the S/N ratio has become too high.

 

Ahh, thank you.

Frank

 

And if an elk tramples your compass, you're out of luck as well.

FWIW, my GPS is rainproof, and it would be hard for lightning to fry it
without frying me as well. Few dogs would be able to chew and swallow
it without injury.

 

That was very recent.

 

It depends on how accurate you need to be.

He didn't need to be correct within ten metres.