David Learmount/LONDON
THE UK IS SET to become the first nation in Europe to approve the use of global-positioning-system (GPS) satellite navigation as a primary navigation system on North Atlantic (NAT) routes.
The UK General Aviation Manufacturers and Traders Association, revealed at a seminar in London on 20 June that the UK Civil Aviation Authority has written to one of its officials saying: "A meeting of the NAT Systems Planning Group, scheduled for September, is expected to approve GPS as a primary means of navigation in the NAT region, at which time the UK Aviation Information Publications will be amended to reflect the use of GPS." The CAA publicly claims that the decision to approve the use of the GPS has not yet been made.
The move will represent a major turnaround, from previous CAA policy of opposition, to the GPS - a stance it has adopted partly, because the satellites are controlled by the US military.
UK operators can now use the GPS as a supplementary air-navigation system acting as a long-range navigation system within minimum-navigation-performance specification (MNPS) airspace, providing that the GPS system fulfils the airworthiness requirements.
MNPS airspace means North Atlantic routes, although eventually the area will be extended to embrace virtually the whole of Europe when European Civil Aviation Conference states' airspace is included.
The CAA action follows European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) clearance for national aviation authorities to push ahead with their own GPS policies.
The JAA is about to publish "agreed interim policy" papers on the GPS and area navigation on 1 July. The JAA says that, on the GPS, "-technical unanimity was not complete, but we had to do something."
Creating joint aviation regulations on these subjects is now impossible, says the JAA, because "-the situation is developing faster than we can write".
See Air Transport, P10.
Source: Flight International