Right now, Garmin International’s panel-mounted GNS-480 is the only GPS navigator FAA-approved for WAAS.

by Joseph E. Burnside

Remember the Microwave Landing System (MLS)? Back in the 1980s, the FAA touted MLS as the successor to the venerable ILS, or instrument landing system, then in widespread use. Well, some 20 years later, the ILS is still going strong—in fact, if you need 200-foot and ½-mile approach minima, or better, it’s the only game in town for the vast majority of operators. The MLS program, meanwhile, turned out to be too complex and expensive even for the FAA—whodathunkit?—and has mostly been relegated to aviation trivia quizzes and opening paragraphs like this one. …