Riding a New LPV-200

The much-heralded promise of GPS/WAAS is ILS-like guidance at nearly every airport without the need for a million dollars worth of ILS equipment. The hero of this effort is the LPV approach-thats localizer performance with vertical guidance for those of you just coming up to speed.

Editorial Staff

Monday, December 01, 2014 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

LPV-200 approaches offer ILS-like vertical guidance with 200-foot minimums via GPS/WAAS but require specific airport infrastructure (e.g., precision markings, lighting, obstacle-free zones) to qualify.
The integrity of WAAS signals, crucial for LPV approaches, is vulnerable to satellite/ground station outages and solar activity; future concerns include potential GPS satellite launch delays and increased solar maximums that could degrade service.
While dual-frequency GPS (L1/L5) promises enhanced accuracy and service volume, its full implementation and availability in general aviation are years away, ensuring traditional ILS approaches remain necessary for now.

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The much-heralded promise of GPS/WAAS is ILS-like guidance at nearly every airport without the need for a million dollars worth of ILS equipment. The hero of this effort is the LPV approach—that’s localizer performance with vertical guidance for those of you just coming up to speed.

If you’ve flown these LPV approaches, then you’ll know that even the best of them tend to come up short; about 50 feet short. That is, they have DAs that are 250 feet above touchdown as opposed to the Cat-I ILS standard of 200 feet.