wrote:

I have the ear of some local government development people, who are
contemplating upgrading some airports. Money is tight, so an ILS is
probably not under consideration. So, I want to recommend to them
checking into a WAAS installation. Does anyone know what the prices of
such equipment for an airport are, which companies are selling them,
and how much it costs to get the FAA to then create a WAAS IFR
approach?

Sincerely,

/iaw


As the AOPA has stated, WAAS will first be used to offer controlled
descent on standard approaches, an alternative to "dive and drive"
stepdowns, which makes it completely legal. There is no requirement
for HOW you get down to the runway, just as log as you observe minimums,
which means a likely mention in the AIM that you are supposed to keep
an eye on your standard altimeter.

I don't think the outlook for WAAS aproaches is rosy. What will happen
is WAAS approaches that have minimums just as bad as the normal GPS
approaches. To get more would require new lighting, runway marking,
and FAA surveys. And recall that the FAA does not just survey the
runway once, they have to do it regularly, with an expensive monitoring
aircraft. Runway markings are not a trivial subject. A lot of fields
have runways so bad they would have to get resurfaced just to be
properly painted.

I think it will happen, but the AOPA seems to be spreading this idea
that we will get 250 minimums overnight. This is going to be a long
process.

--
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