FAA to OK GPS for Position on Airport?

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AVFLASH NEWS
March 27, 2007

FAA Fast-Tracks GPS Cockpit Technology By Mary Grady</a>, Contributing Editor



Here are words the general aviation world never expected to hear: "FAA approval ... is very, very simple to get." But those words were uttered by John Hickey, FAA's director of aircraft certification, at a recent press briefing. He was speaking specifically about GPS cockpit devices that show pilots exactly where their airplane is on a moving map of the airport surface. "This device is a game changer," said FAA Administrator Marion Blakey. "We're confident that it's ready for prime time. I'll say it plainly: it needs to be in our cockpits."

OK, call me a curmudgeon, but I already have this in my Garmin '496 and all the guys with Control Vision already had it before me. I know the FAA version is fancier, with alerts and stuff, but really, is perfection the enemy of the good here? Does everything have to be TSO'd to be helpful? If non-TSO'd stuff had been allowed, would that wrong-runway crash have happened? Maybe not. I don't know their regulations, but I recall a conversation with an Air National Guard pilot who flew multi-engine over the Atlantic and he said "we always check out a GPS handheld for the flight". This was to double check their $1/2 M inertial systems. I don't want to start another war of words about what's legal and why you should or should not interpret the rules a given way. I am just blowing off steam about the lack of good judgement and common sense in the government in general and FAA in particular.