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 Photo Info
Posted By: Hal Brown
Date Posted: Oct 14, 2007
Description: The weather briefer had warned of GPS outages during the day. He knew of what he said. It came and went, but was mostly gone all day.

Date Taken: Oct 14, 2007
Place Taken: Somewhere Out West
Owner: Dan Nickens
File Name: GPS_Less.jpg   - Photo HTML
Full size     - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZULR0000h">
Medium    - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZULR0000m">
Thumbnail - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZULR0000s">
Category: 289, An Indirect Relocation
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Read what others had to say:

Eric Batterman - Oct 14,2007   Viewers  | Reply
    Looks like gravity was suspended too. Nice pics.     
  
Joe Friend - Oct 15,2007   Viewers  | Reply
    Dan, have you come across any information about GPS shut-downs? Why do they happen? How long is it out? What the planning needs to be for navigators depending on GPS, especially in IFR conditions.     
  
Dan Nickens - Oct 15,2007   Viewers  | Reply
    Professor Maxwell is the resident expert of GPS-Less, Joe. He has published his research on unannounced shutdowns. Mine was announced. I was using a portable without RAIM prediction. I don't know if it would have anticipated the lack of satellites, but I'm doubtful since it is based on predicted orbits. According to the briefing it was more a case of 'service' on one or more satellites that was affecting coverage in the western U.S. (Wouldn't you have liked to known how the service guys made housecalls on satellites?) My first certified GPS also had Loran and VOR capabilities. I'm thinking that would be a really good option for IFR in the 21st Century.     
  
Frank A. Carr - Oct 15,2007   Viewers  | Reply
    And now that the FAA is talking about dropping VOR's what's wrong with Loran?     
  
Dan Nickens - Oct 15,2007   Viewers  | Reply
    What's wrong? The feds don't want to pay for it. AOPA is actively lobbying to keep it alive.     
  
Bill Furr - Oct 15,2007   Viewers  | Reply
    Dan, what was your method for navagation without GPS? I've lost it before, but only for a few minutes. When you loose it, it makes you see how dependent you become on it. No problem if you are in familiar territory. But unnerving if you're not.     
  
Dan Nickens - Oct 15,2007   Viewers  | Reply
    Out over the trackless plateau, Bill, panic sets in quickly when you realize that you are miles and miles from any friendly water or even civilization. Before I completely lost control, I looked down and saw a Wal-Mart tractor trailer. I followed it to Albuequerque along I-40.     
  
Bill Furr - Oct 15,2007   Viewers  | Reply
    Thank God for Walmart. I guess it was pretty helpful to get the warning from the briefer.     
  
Dan Nickens - Oct 15,2007   Viewers  | Reply
    Yeah, it was helpful, Bill, but I've got lots of experience with loss of GPS. I have the (i could be) Anywhere Map portable GPS system and I'm a dysfunctional tech guy. In my airplane I have a Garmin ready, willing and able in reserve. Never has failed. This airplane has a Garmin Nav/Comm, but the database was from 2001 and the internal battery had died in 2003.     
  
Don Maxwell - Oct 15,2007   Viewers  | Reply
    My recent loss of GPS signal happened to be an easy one--but mostly because I was familiar with the territory, having flown over it several times before. I knew our position within a couple of miles and had checked the compass heading just a few minutes earlier, as we headed out over the open water of the Chesapeake Bay. Also, I had the most recent sectional chart and had drawn my course on it with a florescent magic marker and had written the course on the chart before setting out on the trip. <br /><br />But I have to confess that I had gotten a bit complacent because of GPS. I might not have drawn the course line and written the degrees on the chart, except that I had a precious passenger on the trip and wanted to be sure she got home all right. <br /><br />Well. No more complacency! I'm not going back exclusively to pilotage and dead reckoning, but I do draw the lines, note the headings, and use the GPS as a backup to pilotage, instead of the other way around.<br /><br />(That doesn't mean I'm going to be flying high, though, not as long as GPS is working.)     
  
Dan Nickens - Oct 15,2007   Viewers  | Reply
    Amen, Brother Don. How many old airport curmudgeons have advocated this truism for years? This is how they get their revenge! I hate it, but they were right. (Don't tell them I said so.)     
  
Kenneth Leonard - Oct 15,2007   Viewers  | Reply
    GPS stands for: Get this Person some white Socks.     
  
Eric Batterman - Oct 15,2007   Viewers  | Reply
    Ken, Those were white. It's a long trip.     
  
Dan Nickens - Oct 16,2007   Viewers  | Reply
    No, Eric, they are black. Old retired people are supposed to wear black socks. It says so in the AARP guide.     


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