Just in case you haven't heard. Solar flare GPS advisory .

Thank you for the heads up.

Just posted the article on my blog.

Blake

www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com

Why is the article emphasizing GPS units? Wouldn't it affect other things, too, like comm. satellites?

Sue

Loss of comms doesn't cause a passenger liner to land 100' left of center on an autopilot landing using GPS signals or cause "uncle Bob" to turn left into someones living room because the GPS navigator in his car said to ?

Actually I think the focus is on GPS because so many people are now dependent on it and a lot of the rest of the impacted technologies are less visible to the general public (or they have some land based mitigations that should be less impacted).

- Eric

I don't think autopilot landings are legal, even if they are possible. Autopilot is mainly to keep the plane flying straight and level, as far as I've ever heard.

And I would like to think that pilots are using their grey matter a little more than the bozos who program "shortest route" into their GPS and drive off a cliff.

I hope so, anyway.

But if the solar flares can cause trouble with a GPS, just think of all the whining and crying and panic attacks that would occur with a worldwide SCPD (Sudden Cell Phone Death)!

People wouldn't even be able to walk because the lack of the cell phone to their ears would throw them off-balance.

Sue

Automatic landing systems are commonly used in commercial aviation, but don't use GPS (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoland).

I'm not a pilot, so if one of the licensed pilots would care to chime in, I'd be glad to learn more n

Autopilot landings are very, very common for commercial airline flights. Autopilots (with the Flight Management System) fly very complex approaches very precisely which really helps with both airspace congestion and reducing fuel burn (i.e. operating costs).

GPS has been certified for Instrument Landing System Look alike approaches for quite some time now.

Anything that impacts the GPS system will impact airline operations.

I am not a pilot but I do work in aviation and have pretty extensive experience with GPS and autoland systems for bigger airplanes.

Here is a link to GPS Landing System info (pretty simple but ok) GLS

- Eric

I don't have a legitimate source, this is just something I read. Some planes, thought not all, are able to land themselves in the event of an emergency.

Jeanette Isabelle

All autopilot systems in commercial airplanes are certified for specific types of operations. All of these require the crew to actively monitor the operation of the autopilot. Certification for coupled approaches (auto landing) requires extensive proofs that the system is fault tolerant and capable of landing safely under a wide range of landing conditions. This is the most demanding certification for an autopilot system and all of the currently certified autopilots are designed to disconnect when faults are detected and return control to the crew (along with aural and visual announcements of the fault).

There are no civil autoflight systems that are designed or certified to safely land the airplane in the event of an emergency. Having said that, I'll note that if the pilots were incapacitated the autoflight systems may make it possible for a less trained individual to safely land the airplane. This is not part of the design or certification criteria for the system and goes along the lines of some chance is better than no chance at all.

To the best of my knowledge military systems have similar or even more restrictive limitations.

Most people would be surprised at how little the crew may be doing in a commercial jet - after rotation (takeoff) the various systems are theoretically capable of performing the rest of the flight, including the landing and approach with minimal pilot intervention.

This is my work field (avionics systems engineer) and I have a pretty extensive background on both general avionics and flight control systems for both large military jets and commercial jetliners. In general, the autoflight systems of smaller airplanes are less capable due to the costs of developing and maintaining the systems to the safety levels required. The benefits (in $) just don't justify the costs for smaller planes.

- Eric

This is interesting, just a few hours ago I was checking maps on my phone, and even though GPS location was within 20 meters it display my location consistently half a mile east of actual. Wonder if it has anything to do with it.