• maynarkh@feddit.nl
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    6 months ago

    Among all of this autonomous measurement apparatus, the GPS is the only part that doesn’t require numeric integration from speed or acceleration data to yield a position reading

    My point is that in the airspace we’re talking about, GPS is not the only source of accurate positional information. ATC radars and transponders can and do provide reliable position information all over that area, and it is ATC that’s responsible for routing and separation in those specific airspaces, not the pilots. ADS-B does rely on GPS, that’s true, so if there was a complete outage of GPS in an area, that might mean delays due to additional separation requirements, as ATC won’t get accurate secondary information back from the airliners’ GPS units.

    All I’m saying is that while losing GPS would be a bother, European flight control won’t start losing airliners and as a pilot you won’t end up in Malmö instead of Helsinki just because GPS is down. Worst case scenario is congestion and delays at the destination airport, and possible diversions because of that.