Approaching Nice with the EGNOS System Test Bed

Santiago Soley, Rick Farnworth, and Edward Breeuwer

Abstract:	The EGNOS System currently under development by the European Space Agency (ESA) is expected to reach its operational capability by 2004. As a part of its commitment to the European Tripartite Agreement between the Commission of the European Union, the European Space Agency and Eurocontrol, Eurocontrol is responsible for the co-ordination and execution of various activities related to the operational validation of EGNOS. EGNOS is designed, among other things, to meet the requirements of both Precision Approach and RNAV Approach with Vertical Guidance, also known as LNAV/VNAV or APV. Work has started recently in the ICAO Obstacle Clearance Panel (OCP) to develop design criteria for approach procedures using SBAS. Eurocontrol, in co-operation with ESA and the French DGAC, performed a simulation in a transport flight simulator at a flight test centre (CEV) in Istres, south of France, to study EGNOS-based approaches on a specific approach procedure to the airport of Nice, France. The procedure was designed using recent ICAO OCP working material and assumes State-of-the-art capabilities of the on-board Flight Management System (FMS). Nice airport is a very interesting example of a location where the introduction of SBAS Systems may bring operational benefits. Following the simulation, as a part of the GOV (GNSS-1 Operational Validation) Working Group Activities, Eurocontrol has flight-tested the procedure in real-life using a dedicated EGNOS receiver inside an experimental aircraft for both data collection and aircraft guidance. This paper describes the set-up of the receiver and the FMS inside the aircraft for the curved and ILS-like approach procedure to Nice and provides a quick view of their influence on the control characteristics of the experimental aircraft. The results also include an assesment of the performance of the ESTB (EGNOS System Test Bed) during the approaches. First experiences of the pilots flying the procedure are also presented.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2002 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 28 - 30, 2002 The Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA
Pages:	539 - 550
Cite this article:	Soley, Santiago, Farnworth, Rick, Breeuwer, Edward, "Approaching Nice with the EGNOS System Test Bed," Proceedings of the 2002 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 2002, pp. 539-550.
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