GRAND RAPIDS, MINN. – The Minnesota Council of Airports and the Minnesota DOT Office of Aeronautics will hold their annual Airports Conference, April 13-15, at the Sugar Lake Lodge in Grand Rapids.
The MN/DOT Department of Public Works will be presenting the 2050 Infrastructure Program, which ultimately affects airports and airport planning.
Also to be discussed is Wide-Area Augmentation System (WAAS) instrument approaches, and in particular Localizer Performance with Vertical guidance (LPV) approaches.
An LPV approach is similar to an LNAV/VNAV (Lateral Navigation/Vertical Navigation) approach except it is much more precise (40m lateral limit compared to 556m), enables descent to 200-250 feet above the runway versus 350 feet for LNAV/VNAV approaches, and can only be flown with a WAAS receiver. LPV approaches are operationally equivalent to the legacy Instrument Landing Systems (ILS), but are more economical because no navigation infrastructure has to be installed at the runway. There are over 675 LPV approaches in use today and the FAA is publishing 300 new LPV approaches per year.
Speakers will include representatives from the FAA Airport District Office and Flight Standards District Office in Minneapolis; Jeff Hamiel, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Airports Commission; and Tom Connors, Federal Security Director for Minnesota with the Department of Homeland Security, who will provide an update on the latest in airport security measures. The banquet speaker will be Dave Brown from NASA, who will provide a humorous twist to space travel.
To register or for more information, contact Mindy Carlson at 612-625-1813 or visit www.airtap.umn.edu/Events/security/index.html.
