News Archive

WAAS completes key test, AOPA tells FAA to aggressively field the system

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has told the FAA that it must move forward aggressively to implement the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) for enhanced Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation. That urging came following the successful completion of an FAA test of WAAS development.

“It’s time now for the FAA to eliminate the ‘paralysis of analysis’ and get on with the program,” Dennis Roberts, AOPA vice president and executive director of government and technical affairs, told the FAA’s Joint Resource Council on September 2.

He noted that the FAA’s cautiousness was understandable given the scrutiny WAAS is under and the cost and complexity of the program. “But constant analysis and re-checking just delays the time we start getting operational benefits from the system and increases both FAA and user costs.

“It’s time to set the course for satellite navigation (satnav), develop and implement a strategy for the transition from land-based navigation, and move on!”

AOPA also argued that the FAA must set a reasonable transition period and commit to WAAS over the long term so that users will voluntarily add the new navigation equipment to their aircraft.

WAAS will improve the accuracy, availability, and integrity of the GPS navigation signal. GPS-WAAS can provide ILS-like precision instrument approach guidance to almost every general aviation airport. (Only 635 of the nation’s 5,300 public-use airports are ILS-equipped today.)

GA users must have an affordable GPS database, operational benefits

“But to achieve that promise, the FAA must act now,” said Roberts. “The operational benefits must be in place before GA users can be expected to make the investment in new GPS-WAAS receivers.”

The FAA must improve system safety and efficiency, he said. The agency must develop new instrument approach procedures to airports. At least 3,000 runway ends are “prime candidates” for WAAS approaches.

The FAA should deliver other satnav-based benefits such as terrain-avoidance information and VFR and IFR transition routes through Class B and C airspace.

“Most importantly for general aviation, the FAA must develop an affordable, accessible GPS database,” Roberts said. “Without these items, GA users will be hard pressed to find any advantages or operational benefits from WAAS—and they won’t buy it.”

WAAS passes critical development test

AOPA noted that WAAS had successfully completed a key test on August 16 when Raytheon Company (the FAA’s prime contractor to develop the augmented GPS system) passed the FAA’s “WAAS Performance Build.”

“That was a key milestone,” said Doug Helton, AOPA vice president of regulatory policy. “It demonstrated that WAAS development is on track and that Raytheon is meeting its contract obligations.”

The performance build test was the last of three measures of WAAS progress. During the eight-day trial, the WAAS system demonstrated a horizontal 95 percent accuracy of better than three meters and a vertical accuracy of better than four meters. (To meet precision approach requirements, the system has to provide an accuracy of at least 7.6 meters horizontally and vertically.)

Also during the trial, FAA pilots conducted multiple precision approaches to Morgantown Municipal Airport in West Virginia using the WAAS-enhanced signal.

WAAS is scheduled to reach Phase I Initial Operating Capability (IOC) in September next year, covering the central core of the nation from the Rockies to the Appalachian Mountains.

During Phase I, the WAAS signal will be usable elsewhere but may not meet the 95 percent requirement for availability, accuracy, and integrity. Just as with today’s GPS receivers, WAAS receivers will warn the pilot when the signal can’t be used.

WAAS is scheduled to be fully usable nationwide by 2003.

A copy of AOPA’s statement to the FAA’s Joint Resource Council is available on AOPA Online.

The 350,000-member Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is the world’s largest civil aviation organization. More than one half of the nation’s pilots are AOPA members.

99-3-056

September 27, 1999