WAAS in the news

[Scott III from TX]

This was the lead item in the AOPA ePilot newsletter this morning:

 

FAA TURNS ON WAAS

The FAA at 12:01 a.m. EDT Thursday officially turned on the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). WAAS enhances GPS and is to eventually provide ILS-like precision approaches to thousands of general aviation airports that don't have them today. "Everywhere I go GA pilots ask, 'How can we get an ILS at our airport,'" said AOPA President Phil Boyer at a press conference at the FAA Command Center in Herndon, Virginia. "WAAS is the answer for providing precision approaches to all of those airports where ILS just isn't possible. And we can provide an approach with vertical guidance to each runway end." FAA Administrator Marion Blakey admitted at the press conference that WAAS took longer and was more expensive than originally forecast. "But we really are talking about rocket science here," she said. "We were doing things that had never been done before. The general aviation community will be the first to benefit from this system. I know you've been eager for this, and I applaud your patience." AOPA has been a strong WAAS advocate since the program's inception in 1995. The association has lobbied for WAAS in Congress, and was a key instigator of an independent review of the program in 2000 that determined WAAS was necessary and technically feasible.

[wilywampa]

i saw that too.. does it mean more satellites were activated or just that it's now legal to use WAAS for IFR navigation?

[+Dave_W6DPS]

quote:

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Originally posted by bunnyfufu:

i saw that too.. does it mean more satellites were activated or just that it's now legal to use WAAS for IFR navigation?

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It means that you can now use it for IFR.

 

The satellites have been on, and working fine for a while. WAAS has been working here on the West coast for months.

 

I have noticed that in the last month or so I can pick up both WAAS birds more often, and with better indicated signal strength. I wonder if they have made some operational changes recently?

 

Dave_W6DPS

 

My two cents worth, refunds available on request. (US funds only)

[+sept1c_tank]

So does this mean my GPSr will work better for caching?

[+Renegade Knight]

quote:

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Originally posted by sept1c_tank:

So does this mean my GPSr will work better for caching?

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Yes, though if the cache placer used it and you use it that's the best it gets.

 

Worst case if you use WAAS is that they had about a 20' error and you have a WAAS enchanged 10-15' error you have saved 5-10' of your own error leading you astray.

 

Give or take.

[wilywampa]

quote:

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Originally posted by Dave_W6DPS:

The satellites have been on, and working fine for a while. WAAS has been working here on the West coast for months.

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well, i thought maybe they put up some new WAAS satellites or something... i've only ever had WAAS work on my etrex legend once, and it was next to a road, not in a forest.. oh well

[+Confucius' Cat]

quote:

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Originally posted by bunnyfufu:

i've only ever had WAAS work on my etrex legend once, and it was next to a road, not in a forest.. oh well

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Must be because its a Garmin. I've had my Magellan Platinum since Feb and it has always gotten WAAS signals in the woods, without known exceptions.

 

I am actually surprised at this since the WAAS sats are so much further away than the GPS sats. I was skeptical when I bought my machine- figured it would not really work for me. I was pleasently surprised and very pleased with the Magellan.

 

I too was puzzled by the post, since I've been using WAAS for months.

 

Caint never did nothing.

GDAE, Dave

[Kerry.]

Well WAAS was never designed to work in a forest, on a highway, in a town but more designed to work on aircraft, in the air free of obstructions and all that stuff.

 

Still has limitations for aircraft use but now simply has the "official" approval to use it with properly "accredited" WAAS receivers.

 

Like they've mentioned it has come at an immense cost and still not complete for the intended purpose and that purpose wasn't providing the system to half baked handhelds that simply don't support,can't support and probably never will support the system capabilities fully.

 

WAAS is a bit like follow the leader but that's nothing new in the GPS field.

 

The real bottleneck in the whole WAAS system is the vulnerability of loosing one of the inmarsats. That's actually going to cause some extreme problems.

 

Really someone had to to something officially with WAAS as it simply has dragged on way to long with very little action.

 

Cheers, Kerry.

 

I never get lost everybody keeps telling me where to go