Greg Arehart
Well Known Member
So, yesterday I flew from RTS (Reno) to ELY (Ely, NV) right across Fallon Naval Air Station, and through the VFR corridor between the multiple Restricted areas. On most days, one can get clearance through the Restricted areas, but not yesterday as they were all hot. So there I am flying carefully in the 1-mile corridor at an appropriate altitude and carefully watching my Garmin 495 so as not to stray into inappropriate airspace. In fact, I was warned by Fallon Desert to be sure to stay N of R4804A twice. Suddenly, the GPS gives me an error that it cannot see the satellites (big question mark on top of my airplane icon on the 495). I had charts, and the corridor is right along an obvious highway, so no big deal there. A couple minutes later, it blinks back on. 5 more minutes and it goes off again, this time for several minutes. I rebooted the GPS and it comes up with "poor satellite reception" but at least I got something. Then it loses satellites for the third time. A few minutes later (distinctly east of any Restricted areas and still in the VFR corridor) it comes back to life.
Initially I was thinking that maybe I had a loose antenna connection or something, but the rest of the way to Ely I had no problems. And no problems on the way home (different route).
This all leaves me wondering if the Navy was using some sort of jamming in/over those restricted areas that screwed up the GPS signals. Anybody else ever have a similar experience elsewhere? I wouldn't doubt that the military has the capability of jamming GPS.
Anyway, it was an interesting experience that also made me realize how easy it is to become dependent on that little TO-FROM line on one's GPS.
greg
Initially I was thinking that maybe I had a loose antenna connection or something, but the rest of the way to Ely I had no problems. And no problems on the way home (different route).
This all leaves me wondering if the Navy was using some sort of jamming in/over those restricted areas that screwed up the GPS signals. Anybody else ever have a similar experience elsewhere? I wouldn't doubt that the military has the capability of jamming GPS.
Anyway, it was an interesting experience that also made me realize how easy it is to become dependent on that little TO-FROM line on one's GPS.
greg