Rob Coppinger / Manchester
Spanish air traffic services provider AENA is preparing to test a ground-based augmentation system (GBAS) for precision approaches using satellite navigation at Malaga airport. The Malaga tests will be for Category 1 approaches – the lowest standard of precision approach – and are seen as the first step toward using GBAS-augmented GPS signals for Cat 2 and Cat 3 precision approach and landing.
Malaga is one of four European airports involved in the programme, the others being Bremen, Milan and Zurich (Flight International, 7-13 June 2005). The Malaga tests will not result in equipment certification because the timetable for that has not been set. “Australia has a certification programme for GBAS – we will probably follow its example,” says external consultant for AENA’s satellite navigation division Aitor Alvarez Rodriguez, speaking at the Royal Institute of Navigation’s European Navigation conference in Manchester, UK last week.
Malaga airport will have four GBAS ground stations, which will have a 42.5km (23nm) range. The first was installed on 20 February. A survey of the airport for potential radio shadow areas will be conducted in June. By late September, AENA will have installed the Malaga GBAS independent monitoring system, but by July the Beechcraft King Air testbed will be upgraded with the equipment to measure signal quality.
Rodriguez declined to describe GBAS as an ILS replacement.
Source: Flight International
