Jamming GPS – No bad guys needed, the FCC will do it for you!
On 16/03/2011, in Satellite Navigation, by steve
Whenever a discussion is started about whether or not we should entrust aircraft navigation to GPS, there will be at least one person raising the issue of jamming. This is the specter of a single bad guy with a little black box purchased on eBay for a few bucks creating havoc in air navigation by jamming the signals of the GPS satellites. As you know, these signals coming from space are extremely weak and the system disengages and stops guidance the moment there is even the slightest doubt about their integrity. Hence the possibility of mischief with just the simplest means.
Losing GPS will not make any aircraft fall immediately from the sky but not having the precision guidance on which the new GNSS procedures rely is akin to having the ILS pulled from under you in Cat III conditions. It is survivable but traffic will be severely handicapped until the service is restored.
It looks now that we will not have to worry about the bad guys. A much bigger threat comes from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and a company called LightSquared. Worse, if LightSquared has its way, scores of other companies rushing to satisfy mobile broadband services might all become potential threats to GPS. So what is the problem?
Companies like LightSquared provide mobile satellite services and there is of course big money in this. In order to increase the capacity of its service, LightSquared is planning to set up a huge number of terrestrial base stations that will operate in the part if the L-band just adjacent to the L1 frequency used by all GPS receivers. These ground stations (effectively a kind of cell-phone operation) transmit at powers that can effectively overload most GPS receivers.
How could something like this come to pass?
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Aerodrome control towers of the world – Honolulu International, Honolulu, Hawai’i
On 09/04/2010, in Towers of the world, by steve
Hawai’i is the most remote location on Earth. No other place on earth is so far away from its neighbor landmass as the Hawaiian Islands are. Honolulu, which means Quiet Harbor, is on the Island of O’ahu and next to the famous holiday resort of Waikiki.
The airport is right next to the city and even Waikiki is but a short drive away. No matter where you are coming from, you are likely to be landing after a flight of at least 5 hours but there are direct flights from Newark and Atlanta and then the flight time is almost double that.
O’ahu is characterized by the mountain range extending along the spine of the island and the almost permanent cloud formations on the windward side of the mountains. What you see is the trade winds hitting the hills and dropping their moisture. The windward side of O’ahu is the fresh-water machine of the whole island! The lee-side is sunny and mostly dry with a gentle breeze caressing your skin making even the hottest day pleasant.
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Interesting people, unusual flight plans…
On 03/03/2010, in Interesting people, by steve
Mike Russo – Looking back on a lifetime in aviation
Mike, lead principal engineer and Executive Secretary of the AEEC has recently retired from Aeronautical Radio Incorporated (ARINC).
What were you dreaming of becoming when you were a kid?
I grew up in a rural family with limited means and there were not that many people around me who could have served as examples for choosing a profession. But I did want to find a respected profession, doing respected work. At one point I took an aptitude test and it showed that I would make a good mechanical engineer. My focus from then on was on science subjects. An uncle was a tool and die maker and I got a lot of support from him.
What moved you to become part of the aviation family?
I went to Lake Michigan Community College for an associates degree as a technician and then Michigan Technological University where I got my Bachelor’s Degree… Afterwards I got a job with Westinghouse and in 1971 they sent me to the FAA Academy to learn about the principles of ILS. On my return, I worked on various ILS projects including ground site design and field work for ILS installations including flight testing with the FAA.
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KLM and Aeroflot take-off from taxi-ways
On 02/03/2010, in View from the left seat, by phil
Strange as it may seem one of the more difficult things that pilots have to deal with is finding their way around airports. Despite ICAO standardisation many obvious things like airport signage are not always the same at every airport, and even if they were, airport layouts will always differ. Surprisingly, navigating the aircraft down through the descent and arrival routes, then flying the approach and landing can often be easier than trying to navigate around the taxiways after vacating the runway. Equally, after all the hassle of getting the passengers on board, completing the checklists, pushing back on time, starting engines and leaving the ramp, finding ones’ way to the runway is not always as easy as it may seem. It really is extraordinary how difficult a seemingly simple task can be!
On the aircraft I used to fly, we had no map displays – only the basic fight instruments and paper charts. We followed our progress around the taxiways as carefully as we could following the charts. But even in good conditions it was surprisingly easy to become confused or to make a mistake. Usually this was resolved very quickly by reference to the marker boards and by checking compass headings, or by asking the tower for help. But sometimes one made a wrong turning, especially in poor visibility, or when everything was covered with snow, or at an unfamiliar airport.
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British Airways Boeing 777 Heathrow accident final report issued
On 23/02/2010, in View from the left seat, by steve
G-YMMM was executing British Airways Flight 38 Beijing-London Heathrow on 17 January 2008 when it crash landed just short of the runway at its destination airport. Several people were injured but there were no fatalities.
The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) has now released its final report on the accident.
The 777 was 720 feet above ground level (AGL) on final approach to Heathrow runway 27L when an un-commanded power reduction occurred first in the right then 7 seconds later in the left Trent 800 engine. The resulting loss of airspeed caused the aircraft to touch down prematurely and skidding on the grassy surface, it came to a stop near the threshold of the runway.
The cause was identified as ice in the fuel system which impeded fuel flow to both engines.
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Same time, same place, same level…17
On 04/12/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
Navigation, the art of getting lost – Part 2
A taxiway will do…
A few years later, however, we got our share of uninvited visitors, too. This time it was a Sunday and the observation terrace was crowded by people, some of them waiting for flights due in later, others just there to watch for the fun of it. Well, they were in for more fun than they had bargained for.
Quite unknown to us, high above in the skies a fully armed fighter on routine patrol duty was in trouble. Not in big trouble mind you, just enough to loose all his navigation capability and his communication with the ground. As his fuel state deteriorated rapidly, the poor guy started descending, no doubt searching for one of the “secret” military fields the location of which only he was supposed to know. As he popped out from the solid cloud cover, he saw a field, which happened to be us. He took us to be the military field, no doubt because he wanted to see a military field so much…
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Same time, same place, same level…16
On 30/11/2009, in Same time, same place..., by steve
Navigation, the art of getting lost – Part 1
Faultless navigation plays an all important role in the safe operation of aircraft. There are scores of instruments both in the cockpit and on the ground, the purpose of which is to make sure that pilots and controllers are constantly aware of where their airplanes are flying. Of course, not all the available systems are of equal sophistication, while some provide direct readout of position, others require quite a bit of interpretation. Different aircraft may have different equipment installed and under certain conditions controllers on the ground are the only ones who can really tell at a glance the position of a particular plane.
Constant positional awareness of the flight crew is helped by specialized charts quite unreadable to the layman. What you see is a maze of lines, circles, symbols, figures and arrows, but to a pilot they tell all he needs to know. Controllers mainly rely on their radar to keep track of what is happening but they can read a navigation chart as well as any pilot can. Still, navigational errors do occur, almost always leading to hot situations in the cockpit and on the ground. Here are a few of the more notable ones from our experience.
Shitbombers and the mountains
If you loose your way in the sky while flying over flat ground on a bright summer day, though awkward, things are not likely to take a nasty turn in a hurry. You can always try to read the name of a nearby railway station or if this fails, call in to ATC for some friendly advice. However, if there are mountains around, you are flying in clouds and radar has difficulties tracking your flight, it is better to watch your every step.
Remember the old Chinese saying “Luck never comes in pairs or disaster alone”? Well, this seems to be especially true for flying. The five shitbombers (we called the agricultural sprayers shitbombers) were plodding along in a tight formation, heavily loaded with fuel, on a ferry flight bound for the Middle East.
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Missing its destination – not the first time
On 27/10/2009, in Viewpoint, by cleo
You have all seen the news; Northwest Airbus misses Minneapolis with crew preoccupied with whatever they were doing… But this is not such a big deal. Listen to the following story.
In September 1995 I was out walking the dog (we had a wonderful Siberian Husky called Cyrano) when I noticed a DC-10-30 in Northwest livery taking off from Brussels. We live near the airport and our walks with Cyrano always had a dual purpose. Sniffing for the dog, plane spotting for me…
Northwest did not have flights in and out of Brussels and seeing the plane climbing steeply I said to myself, good, finally they are coming here also and I will not have to connect via Amsterdam when flying to the US (I was a WorldPerks member so flying NWA or KLM was important).
Well, they did fly into Brussels but only that once and unintentionally at that.
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A short (unofficial) history of air/ground digital link – 3
On 24/10/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
Pioneers to the rescue
In spite of the positive business case, airspace users were not exactly rushing to equip with air/ground digital link. Because of the slow down of traffic growth in the wake of 9/11, the expected ACARS problems did not materialize and the ATC frequency congestion was also pushed far into the future. In other industries, such a period of respite might have been used to prepare for the times when business recovery would once again make air//ground digital link essential. But that is not how aviation works. With the immediate threat receding and even some of the big carriers fighting for survival, enthusiasm for investing in things that would generate benefits only many years down the road cooled.
Of course for the planners of the ATM system this was a situation that spelled trouble for later. The frequency congestion problems were not a mirage even if for the time being those problems slipped into the future. The need to put together a comprehensive kit of capacity enablers had not become less important, only the urgency had changed somewhat. For LINK2000+ the big question was: how to jump start equipage? The question was not self serving at all. If Maastricht UAC controllers did not get digital link equipped aircraft to work with, it would be impossible to build and maintain proficiency and to shake down the system in real operational circumstances.
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