No deal will mean no LPV approaches

LPV approaches will be unavailable in the UK if the government does not manage to negotiate access to EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) when the Brexit transition period ends on 31 December.

LPV – Localiser Performance with Vertical Guidance – approaches give lower minima than other types of GPS-based approaches because of the added precision.

The situation has come about as a result of the UK leaving the EU and not participating in EU programmes such as EGNOS. EGNOS provides the Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) signal that enables LPV approaches, with their reduced minima, to be flown.

FLYER asked the CAA what would happen if the UK failed to negotiate access to the EGNOS service. The full reply is:

“Subject to the outcome of the ongoing negotiations, we believe that the European Satellite Services Provider (ESSP) will terminate EGNOS Working Agreements (EWA) with aerodromes, affecting the provision of LPV operations. These will then be NOTAM’d as Not Available.  The LNAV or LNAV/VNAV operating minima are unaffected.

“Following termination of the EWA, UK aerodromes will not be supported by the certified service provider/ANSP, i.e. ESSP, although we understand that the signal-in-space will still be received by avionics equipment.

“The CAA is not expecting pilots to disable EGNOS within the equipment and indeed, on some models such an action may not be straight forward.

“The CAA is therefore content to let the avionics box select the highest integrity approach mode available, but any approach should only be flight-planned and flown to the LNAV minima.  LPV operations are not available.”

More on the impact of Brexit will be in the February 2021 issue of FLYER which will be available to read and download later this week.