I had the final draft of the ILS plates confirmed last week. It will give a 203ft DH and, by the looks of it, the lighting will give a 600m RVR minima capability, both of which are significantly better than the existing NPA's. We're still working with DAP to fix a publication date; somewhere between January and the March AIRAC date being most likely.
It is true that RNAV is the 'weapon of choice' for most of our GA and corporate clients already, but, let's face it, NDB's are still on the IR syllabus, so ILS is going to be around for training for many years to come.
ILS effectively helps underwrite the business case for the entire £3.9m Runway Safety Project through training revenue over a 10-year period. Filton's closure is a sad loss for GA but perfectly timed for us to benefit in this regard.
The reduced minima do add greater certainty to the viability of being based (or operating schedules) at Gloucester and we will almost certainly add the +V to the existing GNSS procedures during 2013.
We have 3 new resident corporate jets (to add to the existing 9) and are hoping for more. I make no apology for targeting that market segment. Last weekend, we ran a 'buy fuel, get half price landings' deal for visitors. We had 42 SEPs during the course of the weekend and sold about 5500 litres of Avgas. The profit on this was about the same as two Global Express landing fees.
We're not 'pretending' to be a corporate airport, we rely on the business! It's a tiny proportion of what we do - less than 3% of our annual total movements - but generates about 30% of our revenue.
Fair enough, sounds like a sensible decision. Just surprised training revenues are high enough to justify it but if it will help you get corporate traffic in then seem like a good move. Even more pleased to hear that +V will be added to the RNAVs!
Out of interest, is it significantly harder to add LPV?
Thanks for the comprehensive answer, mp3. Now what about the LARS? Then you can look at getting some proper Class D muhahaha (strokes cat on lap) ;)
Flew into EGBJ on Friday afternoon. There were a few of us from EGLM.
I hadn't been there before and was thoroughly impressed. Great facilities and felt like a 'serious' place whilst still being incredibly friendly. The perfect mix of 'airport' and 'airfield'.
Free landing fees if we purchased avgas. £1.88 inc. VAT per litre. Yes please, as much as she'll take.
Great cafe, though I understand a separate business.
Will definitely be back. Goes straight to the top of my destination list for taking people who've not flown before out to lunch.
The ILS just makes it better.
I flew in there yesterday to take Mirage to RGV. Very impressive place. Nice coupled RNAV into RWY27 breaking off to a right downwind for 04. A quick trip from Oxford, was almost in the descent before my gear was up!
The ILS is now reported as operational.
A figure of £2.4M has been mentioned but it isn't clear what other work this involved. The ILS equipment alone cannot be £2.4M.
In the US, the typical ILS involves procedure design, installing the localizer antenna array, its equipment house, the GS antenna and its equipment house, substantial ground preparation (moving and smoothing the dirt for 1000 feet in front of the GS antenna), the installation of an approach light system, repainting the runway to meet precision runway marking standards, and flight testing. A full system can easily run in the 2 to 3 million USD range or higher. We just had our approach lights rewired and replaced and it ran about 1.5 million with the approach light towers already in place.
A response from the EGBJ manager, authorised for posting here, regarding why there is an NDB in the GPS/RNAV missed approach:
I'm taking this up with DAP at present but its absolutely right. The approach (sic) back in 2003? was that there needed to be a terrestrial aid but I'm seeing if the policy has changed. Watch this space!
