I found this 2015 market report from GSA (European Satellite Agency) which covers all GNSS systems, across major application areas. The pages (32 – 39) on Aviation seem quite sensible and make some useful observations.
It points out that the vast bulk of SBAS capable devices are VFR hand held, tablets and phones. These typically include both GPS and GLONASS system receivers, plus the satellite augmentation from EGNOS (also called WAAS in the USA). There are a lot of PLBs which incorporate it too.
What surprised me was the statement that only about 20% of certified IFR GPS receivers are SBAS capable (i.e. 80% can’t be used for GPS LPV approaches, only en-route and LNAV). Since SBAS is required for ADS-B out, I would have expected that to be higher.
It forecasts that the rate of IFR equipment shipments will decrease slightly year-on-year, while it’s growing more quickly for VFR (all those tablets in the cockpit)
This compares with slight growth up to 2013
As you’d expect, it’s dominated by the US. Almost everything is run entirely off GPS today.
Aviation GNSS equipment is approx $900 million device market annually, of which more than half is US.
DavidC wrote:
It points out that the vast bulk of SBAS capable devices are VFR hand held, tablets and phones.
I do not see any mention of tablets or phone being SBAS-capable. And I have never heard of a phone with SBAS. Instead the describtion is about smartphones going “multiple GNSS installations”. Indeed my own 2014 model Samsung uses Glonass as well as GPS, and future smartphones should get Galileo and Beidou and centimetre-level-accuracy is promised that way (which I doubt).
My Garmin III Pilot aviation pocket GPS (almost 10 years old) uses SBAS, but for some reason it has not found its way to phones and no mention of that happening is in the market report.
What surprised me was the statement that only about 20% of certified IFR GPS receivers are SBAS capable (i.e. 80% can’t be used for GPS LPV approaches, only en-route and LNAV).
No surprise to me, since we have had IFR GPSs commonly in GA since the 1990s, but LPV is much more recent and in Europe extremely recent and moreover in Europe LPV is only barely operationally relevant (i.e. which airports have LPV and not ILS but attract typical IFR traffic i.e. need to have customs/immigration). For me, this figure has thus far been zero. I know this is now changing, with France replacing ILSs with LPVs but that is really recent. Plus, for most pilots, a non-bodged LPV upgrade is over 10k… for me it would be ~30k. Only a % of IR pilots have that sort of money. So the historical picture will take many years to shift.
The GSA is living a pipe dream.
I do not see any mention of tablets or phone being SBAS-capable.
No uncertified GPS can fly GPS approaches, LPV or conventional. The database (owned by Jeppesen, in practical terms) is not made available on uncertified units.
Peter wrote:
Plus, for most pilots, a non-bodged LPV upgrade is over 10k…
Of course for the many hundreds (possibly thousands) of owners who have a Garmin GNS430/530 or one of the W variants, the cost of LPV compliance is nowhere near the €/$/£ 10K amount. Some installers can actually perform non-bodged installations as well 
By “bodged” I was referring to putting in a 430W and saying one can fly IFR and LPV with it, which one indeed can… just about. The route map is about the size of an old matchbox sticker.
And a GTN650 (or the IFD440) is not much better. It makes a nice keypad for a GTN750 (or an IFD540) 
The airways support in the GTNs is nice and speeds up the flight plan entry but on the scale of things in IFR it isn’t a big fish to fry.
My 10k-30k figure is the cost of doing a proper IFR refit i.e. GTN650+750 or something similar.
One could do a halfway thing with say a GNS430W and an MFD… I believe Avidyne still make some MFDs, but while I like the MFD concept very much, most people would laugh at such a proposal. It would be cheap though. The MFDs go for peanuts on US Ebay.
IMHO we come down to operational necessity. Not many relevant LPVs around Europe. This will change of course… One can fly LNAV+V with a “W” box and that is nice, but again most people look at the value for money.
I do not see any mention of tablets or phone being SBAS-capable.
You are absolutely correct. I asked an expert today about this, who works for one of the GPS component receiver manufacturers. It’s actually relatively easy to add this feature in, which involves decoding an additional CMDA channel. However, there isn’t much demand because it wouldn’t add much value in urban areas where sight of the sky is limited (hence can’t easily see the geostationary satellites). Instead, multi-constellation (receiving both GPS and GLONASS) improves time to first fix and also likelihood of receiving more satellites. Multi-band will also improve accuracy in the medium term, includling in urban areas.
However there is a new requirement from automonous vehicles, which will need to be accurate to 1 meter in moving vehicles. This is likely to drive a requirement for SBAS support. Once that’s generally incorporated into the chipsets, I’d expect this to become more widely available in (at least high end) consumer devices.
No uncertified GPS can fly GPS approaches, LPV or conventional.
Again, absolutely correct. But neither can you legally fly GPS overlay approaches, although it’s commonly done.
There is a risk of temptation that when (not if) the apparent quality of VFR-style non-certified kit becomes so good that it becomes hard to ignore. This makes it more important/urgent to simplify the approval requirements and costs for certified gear, to encourage adoption.
But neither can you legally fly GPS overlay approaches
I don’t agree…. all the “required equipment” regs, private flying context (non AOC, etc) in Europe and the USA, reference equipment to be carried, not equipment to be used.
So you could navigate legally with a tuna sandwich (there was a great discussion of this in Usenet, rec.aviation.ifr, about 15 years ago – @bookworm will know ), by flying the heading of a rubber duck floating in a bucket of water, etc.
So, yeah, the general view is that you need to carry an ADF to fly an NDB approach (although to be honest I have never actually seen this written anywhere – has anyone else?) but the actual navigation can be done in any way at all.
The caveat to all these things is that, in the UK at least, you could get prosecuted under the Endangerment clause, if you actually used the rubber duck method and crashed, busted CAS, etc.
the apparent quality of VFR-style non-certified kit becomes so good
IMHO much of it is junk.
Tablets and phones can easily lose a GPS fix, in the “wrong” kind of aircraft. My Ipad2 loses the fix easily in my TB20, though it works in others. Obviously it is really marginal. Various GPS receivers would never acquire a fix if turned on during flight. The GNS2000 bluetooth unit almost never picked up EGNOS… no idea why, and I chucked my last one in the bin (had 3 of them).
I think most people never realise just how close they are to losing a GPS fix on their favourite phone or tablet.
And that’s before you get to stuff like GPS-ILS whose database quality is completely unknown and unverifiable. I flew with this a few times, and the GS was nowhere near the real ILS one, say EGHH. The UK database was apparently compiled by one UK pilot and he has not been willing to discuss the details, and the app developer won’t either.
So I think there is a long way to go… you cannot beat a properly installed GPS, a rooftop antenna, etc.
Peter wrote:
By “bodged” I was referring to putting in a 430W and saying one can fly IFR and LPV with it, which one indeed can… just about. The route map is about the size of an old matchbox sticker.
Umm well you can. It isn’t a real moving map but precision approaches without moving maps work just fine.
And a GTN650 (or the IFD440) is not much better. It makes a nice keypad for a GTN750 (or an IFD540).
Yes 750s are better than 650s but the 650s work just fine.
IMHO we come down to operational necessity. Not many relevant LPVs around Europe. This will change of course… One can fly LNAV+V with a “W” box and that is nice, but again most people look at the value for money.
Well in France and Germany there are loads including airports without ILS. Lots of LNAV. It doesnt have to be a 30k hit. With the STC and a GNS430w you can fly all of these. Southern Europe sure has fewer as does the Uk and Ireland but in northern Europe GPS approaches are proliferating.
DavidC wrote:
I asked an expert today about this, who works for one of the GPS component receiver manufacturers.
Strange. Because AFAIK since about 10 years every GPS module is SBAS/WAAS capable. The difference is in a few lines of firmware code, all the hardware is there anyway.
For example Apple states in their iPad specs that their GPS is SBAS capable (this link is for an arbitrary iPad – my five year old iPad 2 is definitely SBAS : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6716865?start=0&tstart=0 )
Or another one, u-blox, a manufacturer of OEM GPS receivers, very popular in the modelist and tinkerer scene for example, states that all their modules are SBAS capable. Mind you, some of these units sell for less then 10 Euros, so it is not expensive high-end stuff: https://www.u-blox.com/sites/default/files/products/documents/GNSS-module-selector_Overview_%28UBX-14000426%29.pdf
What is missing in these devices however is proper and certified monitoring (RAIM) which is a requirement for aeronautical use.
Also missing is a geoid correction means – usually this is implemented as a lookup table. Hence the altitude is way off. My S6, S7 and T705 are off by the usual 150ft.
