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 aim to provide ILS-like 200-foot minimums, but require specific airport infrastructure like precision markings, lighting, and a Precision Obstacle Free Zone.
The reliability and availability of LPV minimums depend critically on WAAS signal integrity, which is influenced by satellite health, ground station network, and solar activity.
While WAAS service has expanded, concerns about delays in GPS satellite launches and future solar activity could degrade LPV availability, with new dual-frequency L5 technology offering a long-term, but distant, solution.

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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.