Great, I missed that one! So it basically is a paperwork exercise these days. What exactly is involved? I am about to start an approach approval on an GNS430 equipped aircraft, what else is required for P-RNAV equipment approval?
And how does operator approval work for private ops these days? [CAA, not FAA]
....and if it happens to just fail after landing before they inspect you.....
Does this actually happen? ie someone comes and inspects you after an instrument landing to see if you had the right equipment?? Are there such police states out there? (otoh I could imagine CASA doing it in the police continent...)
I have never heard of a case of equipment [non]carriage being enforced.
A few years ago there was a rumour, all over the usual UK pilot sites, that a pilot who ferried an SR22 from the USA got arrested by the CAA when he landed in the UK. The rumour was checked out (in fact I spoke to somebody in the CAA at the time myself) and as far as anybody knows it was false.
My guess is that flying in RVSM airspace without RVSM might be enforced but very few non-jet GA pilots are going to be doing that.
Re PRNAV approval, you have two routes for a G-reg plane:
The easiest way is to get a box which has an STC which comes with an AFMS which includes PRNAV, and that means a GTN650 or 750 whose EASA AML STC is all done. I am not aware of any others.
For a GNS box, you need somebody able to push an EASA Major mod through the system. I would go to one of the avionics shops who do a lot of this. I am not current but Lees Avionics (now Gama) were doing a lot of this stuff - as well as selling a lot of paperwork packages to other avionics installers. A number of people got PRNAV some years ago by getting under the wire, before EASA got organised to rip people off on this route.
For an N-reg, the GNS530W is now PRNAV-approvable via an STC - details here.
Re operator approval, I don't know where this stands. I vaguely recall reading somewhere that the UK CAA was doing some sort of automatic approval, but may have it completely wrong. Some time ago, a pilot I know was running seminars at the end of which he would hand out a certificate to everybody who attended. For an N-reg, I believe King are doing some sort of their usual study material.
Currently, the suggestion that we will get PRNAV enroute airspace is being denied, but we may get PRNAV TMAs which comes to exactly the same thing because one has to transit them on any significant trip. However there is no way for ATC to check whether somebody declaring say PBN/D2 is actually PRNAV approved and I doubt anybody will care... same with ADF etc carriage.
For an N-reg, the GNS530W is now PRNAV-approvable via an STC - details here.
Does this include the 430W as well?
Nothing is enforced until you have an infringement, then if they find your equipment deficient, they will consider adding that to any other offences they find.
Just wrestling with this. It may sound thick, but the aircraft I would always fly IFR has every nav source known to man, including 2 × FMS so I don’t have to worry.
If I were on the N register and had noWAAS, ADF or DME then I could file an IFR flight plan to an airport with an ILS/DME procedure which uses the NDB in the missed, and substitute GPS for the NDB and DME. Right?
So if I’ve planned for that ILS arrival and I need an alternate, it has to be one that has what sort of approach?
If I were on the N register and had noWAAS, ADF or DME then I could file an IFR flight plan to an airport with an ILS/DME procedure which uses the NDB in the missed, and substitute GPS for the NDB and DME. Right?
Not in European airspace, no substitution permitted. You don’t have to use your ADF or DME but you have to carry it.
When I did a bit of research on this some years ago I found that Switzerland allowed an IFR GPS to substitute for an ADF, but only enroute. That was found in the Swiss AIP.
To fly approaches, you need to carry the equipment implied by the approach plate.
What you actually use to navigate – enroute or on an approach – is up to you (as a private pilot) or as per your AOC ops manual (if flying AOC ops).
Being N-reg doesn’t help because equipment carriage is an airspace requirement.
Yes of course you are right, being N reg does nothing for you in this particular context!
I do seem to remember that there was a JAA move to allow substitution some years ago. Obviously it came to nothing, although I suspect the impending arrival of EASA precipitated the procrastination. I wonder if any BASA between the FAA and EASA might address this issue? Or indeed if the planned removal of VORs and NDBs will eventually result in a re-think.
For those of you who are wondering about the one DME being used to indicate Zero at both ends of the runway it is done by placing the DME station at the runway mid point and manipulating the signal to read zero at the runway ends.
This plays havoc with some multi sensor navigation systems as most airliner FMC’s use a number of auto tuned DME receivers ( five in the B737NG) to update the FMC position as it is more accurate than GPS until it has to deal with a DME that has its zero datum adjusted.
