5G’s Rollout Rattled Hundreds of Pilots
I think there is some context missing from this;<p>The 5G band that was auctioned off is only one step next to the band used by radar altimeters - essentially a piece of equipment on aircraft that gives it its precise height above the ground.<p>Aircraft can and do have barometric (pressure corrected) and GPS altimeters as well (which are usually giving you your height above sea level - and knowing the height of the terrain you can work out your height above ground), all of which feed into the various systems allowing them to have an accurate height at any given point during the flight.<p>This is most needed when flying “precision 3D approaches”, usually in bad weather when visual contact with the ground may not be possible until the wheels actually touch the ground. Autopilot systems that land the aircraft fly these “approaches”, and thus rely greatly on their height, speed and distance.<p>These radar altimeters were mostly designed and certified back in the 80’s (or even earlier!) - and it’s a lot of work to have any equipment certified - especially today. Hardware + software back then was nowhere near as good as it is today, yet many of these altimeters still being produced today would be to the original spec from a few decades ago - which had a much wider tolerance or sensitivity to the frequencies, so when you have a frequency only a few steps away - a slightly older &#x2F; worn equipment with perhaps not the best shielding will definitely pick up some surges from frequencies next to it.<p>Blame the FAA for their archaic and slow, near impossible process to get equipment certified. Blame the Aircraft &#x2F; Equipment manufacturers for not updating their equipment with the times, but that’s on the FAA for making this process difficult- see 737 certification as an example, leading to the max accidents.<p>See <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;5G#Aviation" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;5G#Aviation</a>