GPS finds way into more users’ lives – Aircraft system among new uses

As Mohinder Grewal prepared for a new school year, the professor at California State University at Fullerton had a good story to tell students about his summer.

By Tamara Chuang
The Orange County Register

His specialty, a technology called the Wide Area Augmentation System, or WAAS, was approved by the Federal Aviation Administration in July to help pilots fly airplanes in fog and bad weather.

WAAS is one of several burgeoning uses of the global positioning system, which relies on 24 satellites to find the position of a person, place or thing anywhere on Earth.

Grewal has excitedly watched the uses for GPS expand, from surveyors using GPS to measure property lines to golfers figuring out the distance to the next hole.

Carmakers offer navigation systems as a standard in higher-end vehicles and parents can buy GPS-equipped watches to keep track of children.

Outdoor enthusiasts use GPS devices for "geocaching" games and to help lost hikers find their way to civilization.

"Consumer awareness [of GPS] has really only been in the last two to three years," said Glen Gibbons, founder and editor of GPS World magazine. "We live with cars and cell phones. If you put GPS in them, people become familiar with it."

While automobile navigation systems continue to be the largest use of GPS devices among consumers, geocaching has attracted many fans. In the game, "cachers" hide objects and then post the location’s latitude, longitude and clues on a Web site.

"There’s a lot hidden" in California, said Rodney Goehring, a Huntington Beach resident who has played the game with his girlfriend, Dawn DeShazo, for almost two years. "We enjoy being outside, mountain biking and hiking. We’ll look for geocaches along the way. Pretty much every trail is going to have one around here."

DeShazo, who estimates she has found 120 caches in two years, takes her GPS unit along when she travels for business.

"It’s a reason to get outside," she said. "There are a lot of places we would never have gone otherwise."

Earlier this month, the Web site Geocaching.com had tracked 66,966 caches in 184 countries.

Caches usually contain goofy items, such as toys and useless objects. When a cache is found, players are supposed to take away an item and leave something in its place.

The rise of geocaching has improved the sales of hand-held GPS devices, said Lonnie Arima, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing of consumer products for Magellan, a California company specializing in GPS devices.

"Based on feedback we receive directly from geocachers and from postings in geocaching chat rooms, we are certain that geocachers account for a growing customer base and numerous sales of Magellan hand-held GPS receivers," Arima said.

A more recent GPS development is WAAS, which is expected to change the way pilots fly in the fog.

At most small airports, pilots cannot land unless they can see the ground. In bad weather, pilots are not allowed to fly lower than 600 feet unless they can see the landing strip.

One way to get around this is for an airport to install a precision instrument landing system, which uses radio transmitters and allows planes to fly as low as 200 feet without seeing the runway.

But at $3 million, many community airports cannot afford the technology. WAAS offers a much cheaper alternative at about $12,000 per plane. With it, the FAA allows pilots to fly as low as 250 feet before sighting the runway.

"GPS works in any weather but ion storms," said Grewal, referring to an atmospheric disturbance that occurs when solar radiation gives the air an electric charge.

WAAS uses ground-based sensors that correct inaccuracies of GPS satellites, which can wander slightly off course or produce imprecise readings because of atmospheric changes.

WAAS is so precise that it will open up many small airports in all types of weather, said Warren Morningstar, vice president of communications for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

Still to come sometime in the future is the more precise WAAS Phase II, which will allow pilots to land without ever seeing the ground.

Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune

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