I just want to note here that airliners do not rely solely on GPS for navigation, in fact GPS is usually just one form of backup for navigation instructions received from air traffic controllers.
That’s only true around landing and takeoff. For the most part their navigation relies on hybridized data from their inertial, air data and GPS, with several redundancies in place for bad readings and cumulative errors. 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, and thus it is the only one that doesn’t drift over time. It’s actually fairly important, and it’s why using the gnss jammers you can find on amazon is super illegal
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.
I just want to note here that airliners do not rely solely on GPS for navigation, in fact GPS is usually just one form of backup for navigation instructions received from air traffic controllers.
That’s only true around landing and takeoff. For the most part their navigation relies on hybridized data from their inertial, air data and GPS, with several redundancies in place for bad readings and cumulative errors. 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, and thus it is the only one that doesn’t drift over time. It’s actually fairly important, and it’s why using the gnss jammers you can find on amazon is super illegal
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.