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FAA Tells Pilots To Go Analogue As GNSS ‘Spoofing’ Incidents Increase

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The Federal Aviation Administration is advising pilots to prepare to use conventional navigational aids to manage the risks of ‘spoofing’ attacks on global positioning systems and global navigation satellite systems. (www.forbes.com) More...

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WhiteKnight77
WhiteKnight77 36
I keep saying that the more we move forward, the more we move backwards. While electronics are great for many things including navigation, one must be able to plot a course out with conventional, paper means and know how to stay on said course, especially if the electronics get corrupted somehow.
COYOTEHUNTER
COYOTEHUNTER 23
Well said, sir.
I often wonder how many of our newly minted commercial pilots can actually use an "E6B"?
WhiteKnight77
WhiteKnight77 8
I have my father's. He wanted to be a pilot in the AF, but due to hearing issues, couldn't, and didn't want to be a just a navigator I believe. I barely know how to use it and I am not a pilot. He instead went on to become a photo-interpreter and created strike packages from recce film, including for Cuba.
baqwas
Matha Goram 4
I don't have any certification but have the E6B because I was interested in emulating the calculations. I refrained from sending it to my niece's daughter (who is preparing to enter the industry) but with this announcement I will rethink about it. (She's in Europe)
ExCalbr
Victor Engel 7
Knowing how is required in training, is it not? I bet newly minted pilots can use one more effectively than ones who have been on the job for a couple years.
WhiteKnight77
WhiteKnight77 3
I would say that now, they should start taking refresher courses on how to use it then, so as to be able to keep said knowledge fresh.
b4jones2
b4jones2 4
How many engineers still know how to use a slide rule? How many people can use a mechanical typewriter? I learned with a mechanical E6B, and it was great... But there really isn't a good reason to teach it anymore. Just like ADF navigation. At one time it was everywhere, good luck finding a NDB nowadays. It's called progress.
Ricovandijk
Rico van Dijk 1
A few years back I actually used mine, after 18 years if carrying it in my bag, we couldn’t figure out with the what the mach number at new requested altitude would be. Which was required for oceanic clearance. With the old whizzwheel it was a matter of seconds.
sledogpilot
Duane Mader 5
Everyone should be able to but you’re not going to fly a complex arrival or departure route with an E6B
bentwing60
bentwing60 1
been waitin' for someone to state the obvious for a couple of days. can you say RNP whatever 'out the door' and the larger issue of long point to point routes with no current position updates for
FMS nav. boxes, (decommisioned VOR's) and RLG's with their own issues.

https://www.electricity-magnetism.org/ring-laser-gyroscope/

The MIC owns GPS and they don't intend for anyone to forget it, they have threatened slewing from the get-go and practiced it all over the southwest.

conspiracy theories proven true don't originate from stupid people.
RWSlater
Ron Slater 13
With all the VOR's and NDB's outer markers decommissioned going back to analog is not going to be easy
6686L
I disagree...someone help me out here...where did I read that as a matter of policy, we will continue to have access to enough remaining VORs to be able to get down safely (at least here in the USA).

(Yes, I have to admit....if it weren't for my GARMIN 750, I probably couldn't find the men's room.....!)

Seems to me, given modern technology, should be easy for law enforcement to hunt down spurious transmissions. Seems to me, it would be good health advice for the "perp" to hope law enforcement catches him before people like me do!.
chrisrobey
CHRIS ROBEY 10
This had to happen eventually! Back to the basics...
6686L
"basics"...you say? Proper handling of VOR nav to me is hardly "basic". When I started punching holes in clouds, the old "AMBER" airways system (long gone) was a primary nav. aid.

In those years, we thought the then-new VOR ("blue" airway system was PFM (Pure magic...you can fill in what the "F" was for).
Umhlatuze
David Teague 9
As a retired Master Mariner, I have been involved in enquiries on several vessels where navigating officers and marine pilots have been misled by instruments when the simple mark one eyeball would have saved them. All these great useful instruments are subject to being unreliable whether through an internal fault or external force. We should not forget than mankind was previously able to navigate without any electronic device and those skills should be maintained, just in case. It is really not that difficult, I battle to understand how to operate a new celular phone but give me a sextant and a chronometer and I'll find my way around the world using the basics. I wWould prefer a working GPS and electronic chart though.
6686L
I am puzzled about this "Mr Teague". He seems confident in eyeballs, sextants, and a chronometer. Is anyone else in here suspicious of this guy...meaning....is he a legit aviator? I wonder how much IFR time he has, and how much use his eyeballs, sextants, and chrometer was during his aviation experience? (even in VFR weather if that is the limit of his aviation experience...? )
WhiteKnight77
WhiteKnight77 1
Marine pilots, are those who guide ships into harbors, not aircraft.
rmchambers
rmchambers 6
I can remember when this mass adoption of GPS was starting how a few folks were saying "Wait, these low power signals from satellites will be very easy to interrupt or overpower"... I guess they were right.
RWSlater
Ron Slater 5
The children of the Magenta Line are going to be really lost.
stefanovm
Mark Stefanov 5
Same guys who constantly meow and otherwise disrupt 121.5. Very difficult to catch until technology catches up in the detection area.
gavinwatersvic
Gavin Waters 4
Are we going to need navigators on the flight deck again?!
RWSlater
Ron Slater 3
That would be cool. I would love to get back in the cockpit after retirement 8 years ago :)
stefanovm
Mark Stefanov 4
Very True may may get harder. For some it keeps, or should keep, them from flying. I still have my E6B. Most of my IFR currency is through simulated. I still use basics and an actual aircraft for at least 1/2 of my simulated currency approaches.

My pilot neighbor will not fly without his GPS. Also his new reliance on ADS B has made it harder to use him as an IFR currency safety pilot. Eyes required outside, not inside.

Able to use analog and turn off autopilot was fortunate a year or so ago when I had to fly an ILS, 700 overcast and 3/4 mile, manually. This was after two hours solid IMC where GPS and autopilot had worked very well. In the solid IMC the best action was go back to basics and analog.
chrisrobey
CHRIS ROBEY 3
Well said Ron!
bartmiller
bartmiller 5
The security community has been discussing GPS jamming and spoofing for over a decade. And when the FAA proposed to decommission many of the VORs, there was a lot of objection, but all ignored. The signal you get in your GPS (or other GNSS system) receiver is only about 100 watts. So, it takes very little effort to override or jam it. You can buy jammers online and it doesn't take much more than a decent radio shop and some computer skills to spoof.

Meanwhile, there has been eLORAN technology around for quite a while. This is much more accurate than the old LORAN C (ah, I used to love my old Northstar M1 LORAN receiver for my plane) and has the same advantage as the older LORAN C in that it doesn't require line-of-sight (since it's not VHF). Because there is no line-of-sight requirement, you need many fewer stations than for VOR. Even better is that setting up a ground station is less than $250K. If we were really worried about fault tolerance and risk remediation, the FAA would be setting up a network of these stations.

When I'm in actual conditions flying an approach to minimums on GPS, if there is also an ILS, I have that dialed in. If there's not an ILS, I have the VOR dialed in. And I'm ready to go around if the orange flags drop. Enroute in actual conditions, I have the nearest VORs ahead and behind me dialed in. I also have a directory of AM radio stations with their LAT/LONs just in case (I never did remove the ADF from my plane when I have the panel upgraded. Worst case, I have an AM radio for long cross countries.)
harriergnawing0c
Stef Lar 2
> If we were really worried about fault tolerance and risk remediation, the FAA would be setting up a network of these stations.

If we were really worried about fault tolerance and risk remediation, Congress would be allocating funds for a network of these stations...
WhiteKnight77
WhiteKnight77 2
Back when I was aircrew in Phrogs, I would listen in on the pilots and ATC. We would shoot ground controlled approaches into other bases. Once, shooting GCAs into March AFB, the tower stated to check gear down and locked, the pilot replied "gear down and welded." GCAs gave the pilots directions straight from the tower as to where to turn and to what heading as well as whether or not that they were on the glide slope.

While it might need more controllers, if jamming of GPS and other newer navigation aids becomes a bigger problem than what it is, I can see the need for ATC to start giving pilots more than just the frequencies to the next controller or center, just to stay on course.
druck13
druck13 1
The signal transmitted by the satallite is nowhere near 100W, at the receiver it is billionths of a Watt.
CAH747
CLARENCE HELLER 1
Nice to read what a TRUE. pilot has and knows how to use. Service trained and PanAm Capt
CAH747
CLARENCE HELLER 1
I must stand & be corrected I am confused with all the new electronic push buttons and go. I must go back to gnd school and learn all about the electronic world and what t will do for me.. E6B & Jeppsen spinning wheel. bye. bye.
keylempi
Ken Strite 5
Who couldn't see this coming? I knew the day they said they were going to decomission VORs that it would bite the FAA and pilots in the butt, and here we are. Now they want us to start using their legacy navigation systems again, even thought there are a huge number no longer in existence.
ROBERTFRITZ
ROBERT FRITZ 2
There is no mention of who is doing these interruptions…they need to be hanged!
Randman80
Ch Mi 2
Good news is I’ll have all the current charts on my iPad. BAd news if the GPS is spoofed, it will jump to where it thinks you are. I don’t see a way to de-couple the gps. If there is a way, then one could navigate just like we did prior to gps, without paper. Let you finger drag the chart along as you pass you check points. Just a thought……..
b4jones2
b4jones2 1
You really don't know how to turn off the GPS on an iPad?
Randman80
Ch Mi 1
Got it! Location services…..
dann403aln
Dan Nelson 2
How many driver are going to be lost on the roads? I am looking for the road atlas right now
unix1895
unix1895 2
The older ILS, VOR, NDB, and DME equipment can't be sunset as easily as an electronic GPS system, you at the mercy of the Manufacture . These new systems can't be fixed and used unless the manufacture allows you to. When they want more money they just make your GPS glass system, they just stop servicing them. Game Over.
6686L
To some extent...I agree with you...presently I pay Garmin close to a grand a year to keep my Garmn 750 in service as my present primary nav. and comm. tool, and my AREA "portable" current to serve as a back-up. My two ILS/VOR receivers, and the nav-comms they operate off of, didn't cost me a dime last year...or the year before....or the year before that.!
dann403aln
Dan Nelson 2
How much room is there for error when the skies are packed at high altitudes closer together than ever? Very little!
CAH747
CLARENCE HELLER 1
I just mailed my 1955 E6B to a long time friend who put it on the 'Wall". It was invented by a Princeton grad in the '30s. Still use my Jepson circular I am 90.

[This poster has been suspended.]

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