Area Navigation (R Nav)

[ginj]

Hi all, need some help....

I've got to write a paper on RNAV for university and was wondering if any of you guys could help me out?

the paper is on " area navigation(RNAV) in the european (eurocontrol) region and the impact on commercial air operators into the next decade.

It should cover such points as..

>What is RNAV?

>How is RNAV used in enroute, approach and landing applications?

>Outline of the Eurocontrol RNAV programme.

>Certification issues.

>RNAV cost and returns from the operators perspective.

any help at all would be great...got me FISO licence so i'm pretty clear about the basics of atc :rolleyes:
but all this RNAV stuff is a bit strange??

thanks in advance

ginj :)

[Roger That]

G

A quick search on Google would find http://www.ecacnav.com/rnav/default.htm and http://www.eurocontrol.be/dgs/publications/brochures/brnav/ to mention just a couple of the 10,900 it found in 0.13 seconds !

Happy reading and good luck :)

RT

[eyeinthesky]

In very basic layman's terms:

RNAV was introduced to try to update the somewhat antiquated system of IFR navigation which had prevailed in the early days. Airways have historically been based upon ground navigation aids such as VOR/DME and NDBs. In their most basic form you can only route straight from one navaid to the next, and this limits airspace utilisation considerably unless you want to put a navaid in every other field. Some nav systems (e.g. INS, GPS, RNAV) are able to calculate positions and follow airways which do not route directly from one fix to the next. These have been around for years, and if you have the chance to go flying with a pal from your AFISO work who has a KNS 80 you will see what a difference it makes.

All that RNAV regulations mean now is that to operate in European airspace above FL95 (last time I checked) you have to have RNAV equipment on board which is able to navigate to defined levels of accuracy without routing direct from navaid to navaid. Since many aircraft already had the equipment the cost was in getting it certified.

From an ATC point of view we use RNAV all the time without thinking about it. It means we can send someone direct from GAPLI (a point in space west of Lands End) direct to REDFA (a point in space on the boundary with Holland). This gets him out of the way of other traffic and saves him fuel and time. Imagine if they all had to route LND-SAM-OCK-BPK-CLN-SPY. (Look at a map to see the difference). It also opens up many more air routes which would not be possible if everyone was homing in on beacons.

Hope this helps a bit.

[ginj]

Many thanks for the help guys. :cool: