CAA over reaction
As far as I can see it the knee jerk reaction from the CAA has always been anti GPS and when the first hand held units showed up with power from the cigar lighter socket , the anttena stuck on to the windsheild with a suction cap and lots of wires to trip over in the cockpit I could see the point of this attitude.
Move on ten years and B-RNAV is mandatory above FL100 and 99% of the B-RNAV units are TSO GPS units , the rest of the world is doing GPS NP aproches and still they are sticking to the GPS is not 100% safe line !.
First let me tell you no machine is 100% safe but with the way the leagal system works in the USA do you think that the FAA could afford to approve such a system if they did not think that it was safe for every day use .........I think not !.
The USA is the biggest user of GPS on the planet and do we see the States littered with aircraft that have crashed on GPS approches ?. I would also like to know What the GPS vs NDB approach accident rate is as I suspect that the numbers would show that the CAA attitude to GPS is increasing the risk of an accident.
The problem is political not technical the CAA have dug themselfs into a hole and cant find a way to crawl out just like when they over reacted to the Lycoming crankshaft corrosion problem costing people tens of thousands of pounds , I see that they have quietly withdrawn that AD in favour of the much more sensable FAA AD now that no one is lightly to take leagal action.
The lycoming engine problem is a simple one involving a lump of metal and a lot of data that the CAA could no longer argue aganst and belatedly when all danger of the legal action was passed they conceded to the hard facts , the GPS debate is far more complcated and they can sit in the Gatwick glasshouse for years to come ignoring this the GPS reality and thinking that they are the world power in aviation legislation but they have supervised over the compleat demise of the Brithsh aircraft construction industry I just wonder how long it will be before no airliner in the UK carries a "G" plate because of the obsticals that the CAA places in the way of progress.