GPS Jamming
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GPS Jamming
The CAA have published a Pink AIC detailing GPS Jamming Trials from Sennybridge.
The link is
http://www.nats-uk.ead-it.com/aip/cu...1_P_027_en.pdf
The link is
http://www.nats-uk.ead-it.com/aip/cu...1_P_027_en.pdf
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and they will measure and evaluate the results how exactly??
Are they going to have umpty GPS (from several different manufacturers) equipped aircraft flying round all the VORs in the area reporting on discrepancies or is this just a bunch of clowns playing with toys?
Are they going to have umpty GPS (from several different manufacturers) equipped aircraft flying round all the VORs in the area reporting on discrepancies or is this just a bunch of clowns playing with toys?
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The CAA have been carrying out these jamming trials for some while now. Does anyone know what the purpose of these trials are? I just wonder if some one doesn't happen to be aware of these trials and an accident/incident is caused by them, who will be to blame?
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The CAA have been carrying out these jamming trials for some while now. Does anyone know what the purpose of these trials are?
I just wonder if some one doesn't happen to be aware of these trials and an accident/incident is caused by them, who will be to blame?
Even without any NOTAM, nobody is making promises on availability or accuracy or reliability of GPS.
It is there, it is usually working, when it is working it is great. Just don't count on it.
It is there, it is usually working, when it is working it is great. Just don't count on it.
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... and should be able to navigate successfully with reliance on a GPS. If the flight results in an accident because the pilot didn't have access to GPS then his abilitiies are below the PPL issue standard.
As GPS is not transmitted in a part of the frequency spectrum Internationally allocated for radio navigation, the MOD feel that the are free to play with it as they wish. Rather like Radio Caroline, GPS is a Pirate!
Your GPS seems to be more that what the name promises. Actually it sounds like you have a navigation gizmo that takes information from several sources, including the GPS, and presents navigational info based on whatever it could get from its various sources. Nice - but be aware of the limitations.
Actually, what is it?
Actually, what is it?
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Are they going to have umpty GPS (from several different manufacturers) equipped aircraft flying round all the VORs in the area reporting on discrepancies or is this just a bunch of clowns playing with toys?
I'm sure the purpose of jamming the signal is more likely to do with ideas such as if some nasty person figured they could easily guide some nasty device with a slightly hacked GPS to cause mayhem then it might be a good idea to be able to jam the signal to prevent it, no?
It just proves again, that most people don't plan, and rely totally on GPS for nav. One day it's going to bite. Then again who reads NOTAMs? I was totally shocked at a recent safety day when several people when asked 'what is your current NOTAM solution' they shrugged shoulders and muttered things like, 'they are too complicated so I don't bother' or 'I ask someone else if they are about'.
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I was totally shocked at a recent safety day when several people when asked 'what is your current NOTAM solution' they shrugged shoulders and muttered things like, 'they are too complicated so I don't bother' or 'I ask someone else if they are about'.
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Don't hold your breath, it was at the NATS stand I overheard the above, though there was interest in the Skydemon solution, trust me the 'offenders' were the ones that were staring at it with glazed eyes and saying 'ooh that looks complicated' 
I think too it is a good initiative, though it will be the new to flying and younger pilots that will I think benefit the most. I personally simply bought and paid for the same sort of solution years ago, at least now I don't have to keep up my subscriptions.
I think too it is a good initiative, though it will be the new to flying and younger pilots that will I think benefit the most. I personally simply bought and paid for the same sort of solution years ago, at least now I don't have to keep up my subscriptions.
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It is true that there is a substantial UK GA sub-community which never checks notams (in most cases because they do not have internet skills) and I am sure they rarely check the weather too (unless BBC TV counts as a preflight briefing).
There is probably no short term solution to this. The problem is not helped by the 2-yearly flight with an instructor not (normally) being used to check preflight activities.
As regards reliance on GPS, I do wish some people got off their pedestals and accepted that WW1 ended in 1918 and WW2 ended in 1945, and times have moved on. Most people who go places seriously do fully use GPS and are not interested in jacking up their cockpit workload by timing each leg and identifying villages, lakes, railways, etc. The year is now 2011 and the establishment old-timers (members of the Royal Institute of Navigation, no doubt) need to realise that there are pilots who are flying modern planes, who go to real places not just around the corner, and if dead reckoning was the only way there would either be little or no long distance GA activity, or there would be mayhem. The really old timers in ATC did have to get a PPL originally but most of them rarely used it. There is also a large community in GA which never goes anywhere (probably the same people who never get notams) so they don't need advanced navigation, and can't see why anybody else should need it.
One normally backs up GPS with VOR/DME but at UK GA (sub Class A) altitudes there is often no navaid reception. And higher altitude flight around the UK (where navaid reception would be fine) is frustrated by the virtual inability to get an enroute clearance into Class A - another artefact of the tightly compartmented UK "airspace management system" which consigns VFR traffic (actually, more correctly, all traffic not on Eurocontrol IFR flight plans) into a low level dustbin.
BTW, every GPS is easily capable of BRNAV and PRNAV lateral accuracy. Getting the PRNAV approval is a whole another story.
There is probably no short term solution to this. The problem is not helped by the 2-yearly flight with an instructor not (normally) being used to check preflight activities.
As regards reliance on GPS, I do wish some people got off their pedestals and accepted that WW1 ended in 1918 and WW2 ended in 1945, and times have moved on. Most people who go places seriously do fully use GPS and are not interested in jacking up their cockpit workload by timing each leg and identifying villages, lakes, railways, etc. The year is now 2011 and the establishment old-timers (members of the Royal Institute of Navigation, no doubt) need to realise that there are pilots who are flying modern planes, who go to real places not just around the corner, and if dead reckoning was the only way there would either be little or no long distance GA activity, or there would be mayhem. The really old timers in ATC did have to get a PPL originally but most of them rarely used it. There is also a large community in GA which never goes anywhere (probably the same people who never get notams) so they don't need advanced navigation, and can't see why anybody else should need it.
One normally backs up GPS with VOR/DME but at UK GA (sub Class A) altitudes there is often no navaid reception. And higher altitude flight around the UK (where navaid reception would be fine) is frustrated by the virtual inability to get an enroute clearance into Class A - another artefact of the tightly compartmented UK "airspace management system" which consigns VFR traffic (actually, more correctly, all traffic not on Eurocontrol IFR flight plans) into a low level dustbin.
BTW, every GPS is easily capable of BRNAV and PRNAV lateral accuracy. Getting the PRNAV approval is a whole another story.
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WWII is over? Damn I wanted to move up to Spitfires 
To be honest IO540 you are probably right, however as the CAA still say 'don't use GPS as primary nav' nobody should be surprised that it isn't protected in any way and can be jammed or even switched off.
I've never found keeping a plog difficult or particularly tiresome. Unfortunately it's the don't go far, don't read NOTAMs bunch who sometimes think a GPS solves everything. Can't use a VOR/DME and set out with nothing but a battery driven GPS which they barely understand. I know several who use a Garmin 12, yes a very useful unit for ramblers in it's time, hardly state of the art in an aircraft.
I can't say I've ever had VOR/DME reception problems at around 2500' if within the published range??
To be honest IO540 you are probably right, however as the CAA still say 'don't use GPS as primary nav' nobody should be surprised that it isn't protected in any way and can be jammed or even switched off.
I've never found keeping a plog difficult or particularly tiresome. Unfortunately it's the don't go far, don't read NOTAMs bunch who sometimes think a GPS solves everything. Can't use a VOR/DME and set out with nothing but a battery driven GPS which they barely understand. I know several who use a Garmin 12, yes a very useful unit for ramblers in it's time, hardly state of the art in an aircraft.
I can't say I've ever had VOR/DME reception problems at around 2500' if within the published range??
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IO540, you trot out that old WW2 line every time someone on here suggests that pilots should be proficient at conventional nav techniques. As the laws of physics have not changed since the Second World War, then the techniques used for navigating aircraft back then still work just as well. These techniques remain part of the PPL and CPL syllabus and are assessed, so to suggest, as JXK did, that a GPS outage could reasonably cause an accident, and that somebody (presumably other than the pilot) would be to blame, is ridiculous.
It also shouldn't take too much imagination to guess why the MoD might be interested in a GPS jamming capability. Clue: every Tom, Dick and Ali in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc can buy a handheld GPS receiver.
It also shouldn't take too much imagination to guess why the MoD might be interested in a GPS jamming capability. Clue: every Tom, Dick and Ali in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc can buy a handheld GPS receiver.
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Don't get me wrong - nothing wrong in assessing those older skills - but for goodness sake get with the times and make use of what is available.
I have to admit the only reason and I mean THE ONLY reason I still do a PLOG is because I dispensed with the damn whizz wheel at the beginning. I can just barely use the thing to pass exams and have an electronic flight calculator and software solutions. For me the PLOG and traditional Nav becomes a pleasure, simply because I have automated the calculations. It's then very nicely backed up by radio Nav aids and GPS.
So yes I totally agree, allow electronic flight calculators for those who prefer them and let traditional nav be simple. More people would use it I'm sure. People lose faith **in my experience** because of errors in the initial calculations using the whizz wheel. That thing really does belong in WWII. Basic vector sums based on forecast winds however remain totally relevant, particularly if they are easily and accurately calculated.
(and before someone says NASA used sliderules to get to the moon, they also had 6 people checking the results against each other because the things are so easily misread
)
funny old world isn't it. Apparently you are allowed to rely on GPS to stop you from going where you don't want to go (the Airspace Aware unit sponsored by NATS) but not to guide you where you do want to go.
Rans6...........
Rans6...........
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I'm sure the purpose of jamming the signal is more likely to do with ideas such as if some nasty person figured they could easily guide some nasty device with a slightly hacked GPS to cause mayhem then it might be a good idea to be able to jam the signal to prevent it, no?