On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 22:23:48 GMT, "C Kingsbury"
wrote:


"zatatime" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 17:02:56 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote:

When are GPS approaches for places like this, and thousands of others
going
to be available?


Why would a GPS be better than a Localizer/DME. I doubt a GPS
approach would have had any lower minimums than the LOC did, so I'm
not sure how that would have helped in this situation.


LPV approaches (GPS+WAAS with lateral and vertical guidance) can I believe
get you down to 250' and 1-1/2, which is a lot lower than a GPS (LNAV)
approach and quite close to ILS minima.

Second, an LPV approach should be comparable to an ILS in terms of
difficulty to fly: just configure the airplane and keep the needles in the
donut. By bringing planes down on a stabilized approach all the way to MDA
you eliminate a number of opportunities to screw things up.

None of which may have been responsible for this particular crash, but the
overall statistics strongly suggest that better approaches mean safer
approaches.

-cwk.



I was thinking about a standard GPS (LNAV) approach, but fully agree
on the LPV type of approach adding more safety and ability. I'm not
real familiar with those, but aren't they fairly new, and thre's only
one GPS that is certified for them at this point? I'm sure the way
the teams spend money, they'll all have them as soon as possible, but
will there be enough approaches to make it money well spent? Seems
like its still a few years off to me, but again I admit I don't have
the lo down on them.

Thanks for the explanation.

z