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Old 22nd Apr 2015, 10:58
  #286 (permalink)  
Ian W
 
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There is one major difference that should be highlighted between ILS, GLS and LPV (and variants). With ILS the aircraft is following a glidepath beam from antennae on the ground, with GLS the aircraft is following a glidepath based on GPS alt corrected by Ground Augmentation - both of these are accurate glidepaths to the runway elevation. However, with LPV the glidepath is based on a distance/altitude calculation and the aircraft glidepath is 'barometric aided' in other words your vertical displacement from the runway elevation is based on your altimeter setting, you are not flying a ground referenced glidepath but an altimeter referenced glidepath. So the altimeter setting needs to be checked and rechecked. (unless you want to fly an EGPWS aided approach of course)

In ASRS missetting the altimeters in the aircraft is one of the most common incident reports. So from experience of the reporters to ASRS, LPV has far more potential risk than ILS or GLS, particularly if the crew are lulled into a false sense of security as the LPV presentation can look so much like a normal ILS
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