Where is the problem? If Darth Vader / Vladimir Putin want to jam GPS, military and commercial traffic are covered. Low end GA is just irrelevant. They closed down all IFR traffic due to an imaginary volcano ash.
I don’t think a GPS attack is a scenario that GA has to be concerned about.
achimha wrote:
I don’t think a GPS attack is a scenario that GA has to be concerned about.
Then you are either very old, or have not been flying much VFR lately. SD and the likes are de facto standard for VFR navigation and planning. I seriously doubt anyone would even bother planning, yet alone flying more than some circuits without it (except hard core old school people). Yes, technically there is no need, but going back to old school paper maps, rulers and compass, is like going back to snail mail when you have e-mail, sms, chats and all this stuff right in your phone.
GA is in fact the only one who would be concerned about this in practical terms. In a longer term it’s of course also a big concern for the authorities and makers of avionics and other navigational equipment, not to mention shipping.
What I was referring to is that in case of a larger attack on GPS, there is simply no GA.
Just like there was no CAT when somebody imagined there to be a volcano ash cloud.
GA is not important enough to require GPS attack mitigation on top of what we have today: DME/DME + INS + VHF + VOR.
It’s a problem over the ocean, for sure, but other than that? In VMC you look on the map, in IMC you use the next VOR … Every pilot should be able to survive in case of GPS failure, no?
The more basic point is that if civilian GPS is messed up on a large scale, GA will be banned anyway – just like it was at the outbreak of WW2 for example.
achimha wrote:
What I was referring to is that in case of a larger attack on GPS, there is simply no GA.
The Russians caused GPS to be out for a week in NE Norway only a couple of weeks ago, in peace time. GA was not banned due to this, nor was CAT. It was business as usual, only with no GPS. You never know what the Russians are up to. Next time they may decide to “test” their jammers from ships along the coast, or even from aircraft. Both SAS and Widerøe said in the article that being 100% dependent on GPS for navigational purposes is simply no option, and this “incident” proved it.
Large scale jamming is no problem, because them you know and take measures. The problem is being dependent on GPS, and suddenly it is gone. That is a huge problem even if it is random in time and space, or maybe because it is random in time and space.
Alexis wrote:
It’s a problem over the ocean, for sure, but other than that? In VMC you look on the map, in IMC you use the next VOR … Every pilot should be able to survive in case of GPS failure, no?
Well. until now i was of the impression based on years of using GPS that this is pretty much fail proof. But it clearly isn’t. So yes, I need to get my old skills up to shape again. Being able to use VORs would be a very helpful also. In the “old” days, every touring VFR plane had VOR and ADF. In the days of SD, both VOR and ADF are very archaic stuff, simply not needed. But they are still there, at least VOR and DME. it’s more of a problem of getting cheap, reliable and compact equipment. Until then, my map and compass skills needs to be improved 
.
UK NOTAMs sometimes warn of areas where our non-Russian military will be jamming GPS. Often large areas, north of civilization. ( i.e. north of the English Midlands.) 
Just as a point of interest, there is no “requirement” for anything other than GPS nav equipment for IFR in Canada. The IR rating exam requires only GNSS approaches (precision and non-precision) be demonstrated (not even an ILS). It seems that there is no requirement to demonstrate use of traditional aids. There are apparently no longer any non-RNAV STARs or Vector (VOR) airways.
I can imagine the comments that will generate from this group!
There are massive air force exercises happening on the West Coast which will impact GPS for several weeks. This has made me consider how reliant I am on GPS for my flying, and what would happen if the signal disappeared.
In a GPS world, truth be told, you don’t need a navlog; however if the satellites go dark it becomes a must-have item once again.
What items have you come to feel you can leave at home but would be necessary in such an event?
