Last month, a one-day business trip necessitated that four of us at AOPA fly to Hyannis, Massachusetts, for a meeting. Fortunately, general aviation provided the most efficient and economical way to get from our headquarters in Frederick, Maryland, to this small community. The 350-nautical-mile trip in the morning took less time than we would have had to allow to drive to one of the Washington, D.C./Baltimore commercial airports serving Frederick and check in. Airlines would have required at least one transfer point, making the flight longer than the scheduled meeting. It was a beautiful winter day; crisp and clear weather meant solid VFR for both the trip up and back. Two major TCAs fall within the straight-line flight path connecting Frederick and Hyannis, but we were able to overfly both. The superb view of New York City was a beautiful sight to both myself and my passengers. As we flew directly over John F. Kennedy International Airport, I imagined what trouble it would have been to change airplanes there.
Cruising above the TCA, I was using two forms of navigation to hold to a direct course from Frederick Municipal Airport to Barnstable Municipal- Boardman/Polando Airport. One was an IFR-certified RNAV, which required my switching to a different high-altitude VOR every 80 miles or so. The other was one of the new, panel-mounted Global Positioning System units, which on its own was tracking five satellites to determine the heading. It had been installed in mid-1991 under numerous objections from the Baltimore Flight Standards District Office, with the final resolution that it could be tied to no other piece of equipment in the airplane. Thank goodness the panel had room for the placards indicating it couldn't be used for primary navigation. About 60 miles from the destination, the CDI on the RNAV slid off to the left far too fast for me to believe I had suddenly wandered off course. Meanwhile, the GPS electronic CDI indicated a rock-steady, centered needle. It was obvious I had encountered an area where the VOR was either scalloping or unusable. This has been typical during my seven months of flying with GPS; the FAA-approved, certified system has been less reliable than the small GPS box. Yet, at the AOPA Expo in New Orleans, FAA Administrator James B. Busey stated that we couldn't expect a fully operational GPS environment until the year 2010. There is no way the aviation community, or even the general public, will tolerate that kind of delay. GPS will enable ATC to meet the expected demands for capacity, precision approaches, and user-preferred climb, cruise, and descent profiles. It also will be important to the nonpilot, through applications in surface transportation, maritime use, surveying, camping, and a host of other uses.
While loran serves us quite well for enroute navigation here in the United States, other countries of the world did not inherit a similar system of ground transmitter stations from their equivalent of our Coast Guard. Therefore, GPS is sweeping the aviation communities abroad. Australia's AOPA president recently visited with me and stated that almost 50 percent of the general aviation aircraft in his country are GPS equipped. Europe boasts the same kind of percentage. And last December, when I visited Alaska, the owner of the largest avionics shop at Anchorage's Merrill Field commented that he was having a difficult time stocking any type of GPS receiver.
Your association has been the principal advocate of this technology for well over two years. In January 1990, AOPA issued a position paper titled "The Future Is Now." The report outlined in general aviation terms the coming satellite revolution and advocated that the FAA begin to seriously address providing future ATC-related services via satellites. Then-AOPA President John L. Baker told reporters in Washington, that a space/earth air traffic system can be in place by 1995 and fully operational by 2000.
Nearly 18 months later, the FAA has responded through a 17-page policy statement tided "Concepts and Description of the Future Air Traffic Management System for the United States." It provides a broad outline of the FAA's vision of the air traffic system of the future and recognizes satellite services as the centerpiece in the design. The FAA has begun to see the light. The insistence of both GA and the airlines that the FAA risked falling behind this emerging technology if it did not take advantage of it now is working.
Fortunately, for general aviation pilots and other airspace users, the FAA now has a research and development program staffed with innovative thinkers and creative leadership, with few bureaucrats left to hamper progress. The R&D element of the FAA has moved ahead and committed the FAA to a transition from an expensive ground-based communication, navigation, and surveillance system to a more cost-beneficial satellite-based system. At a September 1991 meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the United States offered the world the use of its expensive Navstar GPS satellites — with no direct user charges for a period of 10 years, beginning no later than 1994. In addition, the FAA stated that by 1994, GPS and loran will be available as a sole means of navigation.
Just last month, AOPA management served on a task force of industry leaders to assist the FAA in identifying opportunities for increasing safety through the application of global navigation satellite system technology. While this transition will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, and not actually become apparent to the average U.S. pilot until 1993, AOPA continues to be involved in the important steps toward the future.
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