Flight International's David Learmount witnessed two night SCAT-1 approaches to Runway 04 at Brønnøysund about 12h before the official inaugural flight, from the jump seat of a Widerøe Bombardier Dash 8-100. He describes what he saw arriving at Brønnøysund from Widerøe's main base at Bodo:
"From the pilot's point of view, flying the Avinor SCAT-1 system looks like flying an ILS. The difference is how the approach path is defined. The SCAT-1 system defines a line in space, and the aircraft's position relative to it is tracked both laterally and vertically by GNSS and the Brønnøysund GBAS installation. This invisible path starts at a predetermined height directly above the runway threshold and extends to a range of about 20nm [37km]. At Brønnøysund the glideslope is 3.9e_SDgr and the approach azimuth is aligned with the runway at 037e_SDgr.
"The pilot flying tuned in to the Brønnøysund SCAT-1 approach, designated by a four-digit number on the approach plate. Upon acquiring the GNSS signals corrected by the Brønnøysund GBAS, the system annunciator displayed 'DGPS' in green, and the pilot followed the same flight instrument guidance he would follow for an ILS to intercept the approach from the left, and began descent on intercepting the glideslope at the final approach fix. The instrument guidance was rock steady - no twitches - and when the runway lights appeared the aircraft was perfectly aligned. Both times."
Source: Flight International
