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Operating cost (to the airport) of VOR DME NDB or ILS, and LPV?

I don’t think there is anything to calibrate. You probably have to resurvey periodically for obstructions etc but that is all. And the biggest cost difference is the equipment (or lack thereof)

Last Edited by JasonC at 14 Aug 14:49
EGTK Oxford

JasonC wrote:

And the biggest cost difference is the equipment (or lack thereof)

Not only that but also the considerable ground preparation you have to do for the GS to work properly. Some airports simply can’t have an ILS because of that. This was also one of the reasons for proposing MLS.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Just a bump of this old thread. Does anyone know any current numbers?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Not wishing to cause thread drift, but given the current UK CAA attitude to PBN approaches the whole situation is rather meaningless in a UK context. I know of several airfields that have spent big money on having approaches designed but several years later still no movement.

Darley Moor, Gamston (UK)

Neil wrote:

several years later still no movement.

Actually, while I completely agree with your sentiment, and have complained to everyone up to and including the minister about it, there is a little movement. I am flight validating a pair of GA 1122 LPV approaches this very week.

I have recently heard that many approach designers are now refusing contracts that involve dealing with the CAA because they are so difficult. This can only make matters worse, if GA airfields try to get them designed and no-one will do it because the CAA ends up eating all their profits.

EGKB Biggin Hill

Does anybody know any operating costs, as per the thread title?

We have many many “GPS late / never / etc” threads. A search term like
caa AND gps
digs out a numbers of threads slagging off the CAA’s heel dragging over GPS.

And anyone can start a new thread! We even have a thread on starting new threads

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Back to @Peter’s question. I think at least in the US this is not an easy figure to find, as the FAA provide these services, but they may be contracted out and/or rolled into airport budgets which, in turn, are subsidized by FAA grants. The best place to look would probably be the FAA budget and then drill down. Should be somewhere online.

My understanding is that ILS must be flight calibrated every 180 days while LPV once every five years. Cost somewhere between 5 and 10,000 pounds a time.

I believe the weight of the test gear has been the limiting factor that prevented Drones being used for this purpose up to now. This outfit promises to fix that

https://canarddrones.com/portfolio/ils-inspection/

FlyerDavidUK, PPL & IR Instructor
EGBJ, United Kingdom

So in the end, the drones may save the ILS

I was told by one navaid calibration guy, when I asked why they don’t use drones, that they can’t use them because during the average ILS calibration they fly over 200nm and no drone can last anywhere remotely near that long. So I wonder how these people have solved it?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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