Navy Knocking out GPS in June over Mohave

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PawPaw
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Navy Knocking out GPS in June over Mohave

Post by PawPaw »

According to Popular Mechanics, the FAA has advised aviators that the GPS over the Mohave won't work during some days in June.

LINKY
The FAA has issued a warning to all "aircraft that rely on GPS," (your bi-plane is fine) that once someone gets around 40,000 feet in the air on the 7th, 9th, 21st, 23rd, 28th, and 30th of June, between 9:30am and 3:30pm, their GPS will not work.
And, one aircraft in particular is mentioned.
The FAA has also specifically mentioned that the Embarer Phenom 300, a small luxury business jet, would be at risk, saying that its "flight stability controls" would be affected.
I wonder what they're doing out there in the desert?
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Darrell
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Re: Navy Knocking out GPS in June over Mohave

Post by Darrell »

This is a test. It is only a test.

8-)
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Rich
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Re: Navy Knocking out GPS in June over Mohave

Post by Rich »

PawPaw wrote: I wonder what they're doing out there in the desert?
Railgun in anti-aircraft mode perhaps?
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NVGdude
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Re: Navy Knocking out GPS in June over Mohave

Post by NVGdude »

Presumably this will be centered around China Lake. ;-)
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Netpackrat
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Re: Navy Knocking out GPS in June over Mohave

Post by Netpackrat »

The FAA has also specifically mentioned that the Embarer Phenom 300, a small luxury business jet, would be at risk, saying that its "flight stability controls" would be affected.
As Yogi would say, dafuq?

Also, re: biplanes... If you are flying anything made when biplanes were still in vogue, or a modern aerobatic biplane, with the installed avionics typical to either, you will be relying on a GPS if you want to go anywhere, especially over the desert.
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BobbyK
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Re: Navy Knocking out GPS in June over Mohave

Post by BobbyK »

Yay selective degradation!
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PawPaw
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Re: Navy Knocking out GPS in June over Mohave

Post by PawPaw »

I first experienced GPS in the M60A3. Very basic, very rudimentary, but it gave you a MGRS coordinate on a little screen. Prior to that we navigated solely by terrain recognition. We couldn't even use a compass. A small device used by navigators since the Vikings, a small magnet that points (generally) north. Yeah, in 50+ tons of steel, a compass is worthless. Yeah, we'd get lost sometimes, but as a basic observation, Armor officers and NCOs are very good map readers. Or, at least they were prior to GPS.

I have no experience in aviation, but I have been told that aviators also learned to navigate prior to GPS. One of my best friends during the '90s had been a navigator on B-52s during the Vietnam excitement. He was a master of celestial navigation. From what I understand about star charts, they are very useful if you've got a good clock, and he kept a very good clock on his wrist.

Still it is interesting that the .gov is practicing something that negates the satellite positioning system. What I also find interesting is that they have identified at least one airframe that might be at risk from transiting the test area.
Dennis Dezendorf
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Termite
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Re: Navy Knocking out GPS in June over Mohave

Post by Termite »

PawPaw wrote:....... as a basic observation, Armor officers and NCOs are very good map readers. Or, at least they were prior to GPS.
I learned to read a 1:24,000 topo map as a E-1 at Fort Knox.
PawPaw wrote:I have no experience in aviation, but I have been told that aviators also learned to navigate prior to GPS.
Absolutely. When I was in IERW at Fort Rucker in '87-'88, navigating using a 1:24,000 topo map at 90kts airspeed(roughly 3 km per minute) at 50 ft AHO altitude was a requirement in Helicopter Basic Combat Skills for all student pilots. We made map books of the area using 1:24,000 maps.
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tfbncc
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Re: Navy Knocking out GPS in June over Mohave

Post by tfbncc »

I have no experience in aviation, but I have been told that aviators also learned to navigate prior to GPS.
Prior to GPS, most navaids were nothing more than fancy radio direction finders. It can get pretty interesting when your crew is flying a P-3C from Keflavik, Iceland up to Thule, Greenland circa 1978. There aren't a lot of radio stations or airfields that you can tune in. And Loran is a bit sketchy (anyone remember Loran? Anyone? Beuhler? Beuhler?) The last good position check was when the plane made landfall on the Southern Greenland coast. Halfway across the center of Greenland, the navigator comes up on the intercom: "I think I made a mistake in my math. We may be a couple hundred miles off course and I'm not quite sure where we are..." Long, pregnant silence.

We made it to Thule without burning too much extra fuel. But the navigator didn't get any dessert that night.
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Rich
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Re: Navy Knocking out GPS in June over Mohave

Post by Rich »

tfbncc wrote:And Loran is a bit sketchy (anyone remember Loran? Anyone? Beuhler? Beuhler?) The last good position check was when the plane made landfall on the Southern Greenland coast. Halfway across the center of Greenland, the navigator comes up on the intercom: "I think I made a mistake in my math. We may be a couple hundred miles off course and I'm not quite sure where we are..." Long, pregnant silence.
Loran, Hell, I remember Shoran (from tech school, never saw it again)!
We made it to Thule without burning too much extra fuel. But the navigator didn't get any dessert that night.
No whale blubber for you tonight you sad excuse for a nav. :roll:
A weak government usually remains a servant of citizens, while a strong government usually becomes the master of its subjects.
- paraphrased from several sources

A choice, not an echo. - Goldwater campaign, 1964
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