Mailing List lml@lancaironline.net Message #9567
From: John Barrett <2thman@olympus.net>
Subject: Wazzup with WAAS?
Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 22:53:55 -0700
To: Lancair Mail List <lancair.list@olsusa.com>
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Enough already with the myriads of articles on WAAS touting this pie in the
sky system that keeps being promised to arrive two years in the future.  I'm
really not opposed to a system that refines GPS signals to allow precision
approaches, but with all the expense and delay we've experienced with WAAS
why not just take advantage of what's already available and use it?

Sierra Flight Systems, for example, with its EFIS 2000, integrates standard
GPS signal reception with topographical and airport databases to formulate
primary flight display screens (PFD) that depict highway in the sky (HITS)
graphics allowing almost anyone to easily fly a precision approach to ILS
minimums.  Kids who have moderate exposure to computer games could fly these
approaches with only minimal training.

I know people who claim to have flown numerous actual approaches to
touchdown in simulated IFR conditions with this system, and I myself have
flown through a mountain canyon with a complex 90-degree turn relying almost
entirely for situational awareness on the graphics display rather than
reference outside the cockpit.  This system works!  With a little
verification by the FAA, it could VERY inexpensively provide reliable
precision approach capability for a large percentage of the IFR fleet,
whether GA, military or commercial.  If this type of technology were to be
installed in most IFR aircraft, price per aircraft could be lowered to a
very acceptable level.

We need to have precision approach capabilities NOW that supersede the
obsolete ILS system.  The capability is here and it's ready to use.  Let's
cut through the bureaucracy and put safety ahead of politics.

I'm hoping the flying public will help send a grassroots message to Congress
and the FAA that we want our representatives to work in our interest on this
issue.

Regards,

John Barrett, CARBINGE
www.olympus.net/personal/2thman/carbinge.html


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