Pilots said they see some irony in FAA's warning given the effort expended by regulators and the airline industry to keep passengers from jamming cockpit equipment.
"Flight attendants tell you to turn off your cellphones and your Kindles and whatever else because it may interfere the plane's electronics ... and yet I got this notice from FAA that somebody is going to do exactly the same thing, which is interfere with the navigation of the airplane," said John Gadzinski, an airline captain and aviation safety consultant.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/18/2222931/faa-warns-pilots-in-las-vegas.html#ixzz1Mqi9PXAh
Knowing what I do about GPS, I seriously doubt that the military around Vegas is doing without. I won't get into the specifics because I enjoy liberty. (It's that pesky non-disclosure thing I signed before I retired about 10 years in jail and/ or up to a $250K fine) However, the military and the rest of civilization got by just fine before GPS. I'm sure they'll get by if GPS ever ceased.
Knowing what I do about GPS, I seriously doubt that the military around Vegas is doing without. I won't get into the specifics because I enjoy liberty. (It's that pesky non-disclosure thing I signed before I retired about 10 years in jail and/ or up to a $250K fine) However, the military and the rest of civilization got by just fine before GPS. I'm sure they'll get by if GPS ever ceased.
I have a scenario for you.
What if a plane was hijacked over Las Vegas between 11pm and 5am, how would the plane be tracked?
By it's transponder signal and radar. GPS has nothing to do with it. An aircraft's interaction with the GPS system is solely as a passive receiver.
So the radar signals wouldn't be affected by those in the "electromagnetic spectrum" (took that from the article)? From what I understand, pilots rely heavily on their GPS units to fly at night. Yes, they can fly at night without them, but isn't it more dangerous to do without GPS for night flights? Sorry if I am not asking this correctly. I just figured it would be like flying blind.
I'm not a pilot and I do not work for the FAA, but I would think messing with the GPS of our pilots does put lives in danger. Not only in the air, but on the ground as well.
And, military aircraft have the same and other nav systems to navigate by at night or day as civilian aircraft do.
I think I still remember how to orienteer with a paper map and compass. They still make those, right? :-)(http://www.sycamorebsa.org/images/Clipart/meritbadges/orienteering.jpg)
Good gosh. How did we ever survive as a species before GPS?
I'm not trying to be a bitch or anything, but we are taking this issue seriously in our home. My husband's job DOES deal with GPS about 98% of the time. Like I said, when these GPS outages occur, the customers come back and get a 100% refund off their rental. My husband's company loses money when that happens... duh. If it happens consistently, the company shuts down and my husband is SOL and unemployed.
This is 2011, not 1950. I have a GPS, but don't use it much at all unless I am searching for the closest Starbucks. Think of all the different industries which currently use GPS and how knocking out services would affect them.
I'm not trying to be a bitch or anything, but we are taking this issue seriously in our home. My husband's job DOES deal with GPS about 98% of the time. Like I said, when these GPS outages occur, the customers come back and get a 100% refund off their rental. My husband's company loses money when that happens... duh. If it happens consistently, the company shuts down and my husband is SOL and unemployed.
This is 2011, not 1950. I have a GPS, but don't use it much at all unless I am searching for the closest Starbucks. Think of all the different industries which currently use GPS and how knocking out services would affect them.
(p.s. - I personally think your husband's company should reconsider that policy.)
At the very least, post a notice in their storefronts that while X-company is testing their 4G innerwebz system (until such and such date), XYZ rentals will be suspending the "Get a Free Rental if the GPS Don't Work" deal.
Good idea D6. Very good idea. I wonder what people will do if GPS simply doesn't work, or becomes unreliable. No power, no GPS... Oh never mind, I can orienteer.
All those GPS dependent folks are gonna be screwed, blued and tattooed if some Muzzie whack job ever decides to put a nuke on top of a Scud and punt it to high altitude somewhere in the western hemisphere. EMP takes down GPS sats along with every other unshielded electrical circuit.
I think it is most helpful to national security that the FAA has made this a public warning. China and Russia pay no attention to this confirmation that this mechanism can send the airline industry into havoc.
Stupid is as stupid does.
The military doesn't need GPS. :)
The airline industry doesn't NEED GPS: ATP pilots have all been thoroughly trained on how to follow a paper map, "victor" routes, find the frequency for a beacon, and calculate course drift based upon wind speed and direction. They have the tools; they're just whining because somebody is disturbing their nap time.
The military on the other hand DOES need GPS as an essential component enabling it to work the war fighting miracles we lazy bastards have come to expect of them. Take away GPS, and a fat chunk of all precision guided munitions - you know, the stuff that permits us to drop a bomb on a headquarters and decapitate a division, instead of having to bleed a river of blood fighting our way through all of the poor schlub privates, corporals and sergeants standing between our guys and that general - are instantly lobotomized. All of those unmanned drones making life miserable for the bad guys? They'd need pilots on board them if it weren't for GPS. Without GPS, warfighting goes back to being a much more brutal affair; something most American candy-asses will no longer tolerate, now that they've been spoiled so.
The military has plenty of aircraft that do not need GPS to get the job done. Husband is a retired USAF radar navigator.
The aircraft don't need the GPS, true, but you seem to have missed my point. The inexpensive, hyper accurate WEAPONS that kill bad guys with a minimum of surrounding civilian casualties get damned in-accurate in a hurry without the GPS system feeding location data to 'em.
Take away GPS, and a fat chunk of all precision guided munitions - you know, the stuff that permits us to drop a bomb on a headquarters and decapitate a division, instead of having to bleed a river of blood fighting our way through all of the poor schlub privates, corporals and sergeants standing between our guys and that general - are instantly lobotomized.
Aircraft radar systems that are updated on a regular basis can get the job done with laser guided precision.
The USAF does not need GPS to function and get the mission done successfully - on time and on target.