Gulfstream’s PlaneView OK’d for Ultra-precise Approaches

After a year-long effort with the FAA, fractional provider NetJets and avionics maker Honeywell, Gulfstream yesterday secured FAA approval for its PlaneView cockpit system in the G350, G450, G500 and G550 to fly Required Navigation Performance Special Aircraft and Aircrew Authorization Required (RNP SAAAR) approaches. Aircraft flying under RNP SAAAR procedures use both global positioning and inertial navigation reference systems to fly predetermined paths that allow for safer, more direct and lower-minimum approaches. The approval followed Gulfstream’s two-pronged effort to validate the accuracy of the aircraft’s onboard navigation systems and to create flight crew operations and maintenance guidance documents for RNP SAAAR 0.3 approaches. NetJets and Honeywell, which both operate PlaneView-equipped Gulfstreams, are now incorporating this recent FAA approval in their own operational packages and will then submit it to their local FAA FSDO to allow them to conduct specified RNP SAAAR instrument approaches. A Gulfstream spokesman said the company will soon issue an aircraft service change detailing how G350, G450, G500 and G550 operators can purchase and implement the yet-to-be-priced RNP SAAAR package.