Disappearing nav-aids at St Helena
I've noticed (on StHelenaAirport.com) that the LF radio beacon (NDB) is no longer listed as one of the nav-aids at St Helena Airport. I wonder if it's been switched off or did it just fail and not been fixed?
I guess that not many aircraft using the airport these days would find an NDB useful - but that begs the question, why bother to install it in the first place?
The other mysterious disappearing nav-aid is the Honeywell "Smartpath" GBAS (enhanced satellite nav system) which I believe was installed at probably at least 10 or 20 times the cost of the NDB. I don't know if the Airlink Embraer E190 is equipped to use this system, but it alone might have provided a good approach aid to both runways instead of the LOC/DME system which only covers runway 20.
I see the Honeywell website still says that the system on St Helena is "deploying" - which it has said for at least the last 2 years. So I wonder why that expensive system is not yet in operation? Perhaps ASSI won't approve it - after all it "wasn't invented here"!