Santa Barbara airport moves to study private-designed GPS approaches as FAA reduces nationwide maintenance

Santa Barbara Airport Director Haster said at the July 10 Airport Commission meeting that the Federal Aviation Administration has begun reducing the number of instrument approaches it maintains nationwide, and the airport is pursuing a consultant to design standalone GPS approaches for both ends of the runway.

Haster said the consultant would draft approaches for Runway 7 and Runway 25 and could provide minimums comparable to previous instrument landing system (ILS) or GPS overlays. “We have the opportunity to work with a consultant who has a letter of agreement with the FAA to be able to design approaches, and they will actually design standalone GPS approaches to both ends of the airport,” Haster said. He added the approaches could be flight-checked and then published by the FAA, but the FAA may not take over maintenance immediately because of current workload.

Why it matters: changes…