ION Technical Content
The 'Approval' of GPS Operations
| Abstract: | This paper will describe the experiences of the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority Safety Regulation Group (SRG) in considering the approval of Air Traffic Operations based on the use of GPS as a source of navigation information. The purpose of the paper is to illustrate some of the institutional, organisational and technical issues associated with the regulation of a National Air Traffic System reliant in part on a navigation service provided by an extra-territorial third party. The paper considers the issues that emerged following the decision to withdraw funding support for the Omega navigation system and also the withdrawal of some DECCA VLF services. These services were critical to the helicopter operators in the U.K. North Sea supporting oil and gas extraction, and to some commercial jet operations across the Atlantic. This required the SRG to urgently consider the approval of continued operations using GPS as the prime source of navigation information. In the process of this, SRG had to consider the following aspects: Current national and international institutional arrangements. Liability Issues. Necessary changes to internal regulatory processes. The implications of differing national regulatory processes and ethos. The level of GPS technical performance data available to support traditional regulatory approval. Interfaces with the user community. Subsequent monitoring arrangements. In the situations described above, pragmatic "work arounds" were developed to deal with most of these issues and these will be detailed. This approach only served to highlight the need for change in current regulatory arrangements. As the development of GNSS continues, the requirements for information interchange, the problems caused by differing regulatory systems and cultures and the level of technical understanding available to the safety regulator will need to be considered. |
| Published in: |
Proceedings of the 1998 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 21 - 23, 1998 Westin Long Beach Hotel Long Beach, CA |
| Pages: | 185 - 192 |
| Cite this article: | Pumfrey, John, "The 'Approval' of GPS Operations," Proceedings of the 1998 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Long Beach, CA, January 1998, pp. 185-192. |
| Full Paper: |
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