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The pilot of a C172 shooting practice RNAV (GPS) approaches encountered four instances of his garmin 430x GPS failing and producing an integrity alarm inside of the FAF. Only after turning off and removing the batteries from his spot satellite tracker/messenger device did the GPS provide continuous reliable navigation.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1164633 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201404 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.Airport |
| State Reference | US |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172 |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
| Flight Phase | Final Approach |
| Route In Use | Direct |
| Flight Plan | None |
| Component | |
| Aircraft Component | GPS & Other Satellite Navigation |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Single Pilot |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Private |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 5 Flight Crew Total 490 Flight Crew Type 396 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe |
Narrative:
The aircraft was a cessna 172 equipped with a garmin 430w (waas) enroute/approach GPS. My personal 'spot' satellite tracker/messenger device was turned on and placed on the aircraft's dash.while performing practice instrument GPS approaches under the hood with a flight instructor as a check pilot. The garmin 430w failed with an integrity alarm after the final approach fix and in the lpv mode four consecutive times. Only after the spot device was turned off and batteries removed was I able to make GPS instrument approaches down to minimums without incident.I am very concerned about this as many other pilots use the spot tracker/messenger device. The fact that spot device clearly interfered and failed the garmin 430w GPS on final is extremely worrisome. Had this happened during real IMC and I had not the caught the GPS failure I could have flown the plane into the ground. There are many new electronic devices on the market and pilots may not be aware of the dangers with them. Furthermore; with the FAA allowing all electronic devices to be turned on during commercial aircraft I am concerned that if a passenger turned on a spot device during flight it could interfere with the GPS system on a commercial airliner.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: The pilot of a C172 shooting practice RNAV (GPS) approaches encountered four instances of his Garmin 430x GPS failing and producing an integrity alarm inside of the FAF. Only after turning off and removing the batteries from his SPOT Satellite Tracker/Messenger device did the GPS provide continuous reliable navigation.
Narrative: The aircraft was a Cessna 172 equipped with a Garmin 430w (WAAS) Enroute/approach GPS. My personal 'SPOT' Satellite tracker/messenger device was turned on and placed on the aircraft's dash.While performing practice instrument GPS approaches under the hood with a flight instructor as a check pilot. The Garmin 430w failed with an integrity alarm after the final approach fix and in the LPV mode four consecutive times. Only after the SPOT device was turned off and batteries removed was I able to make GPS instrument approaches down to minimums without incident.I am very concerned about this as many other pilots use the SPOT tracker/messenger device. The fact that SPOT device clearly interfered and failed the Garmin 430w GPS on final is extremely worrisome. Had this happened during real IMC and I had not the caught the GPS failure I could have flown the plane into the ground. There are many new electronic devices on the market and pilots may not be aware of the dangers with them. Furthermore; with the FAA allowing all electronic devices to be turned on during commercial aircraft I am concerned that if a passenger turned on a SPOT device during flight it could interfere with the GPS system on a commercial airliner.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.