MADGE IN THE NORTH SEA

MADGE is an acronym for Microwave Aircraft Digital Guidance Equipment. It is small and compact -- and both its ground station and its aircraft equipment know the coordinates (the angles of elevation and azimuth and the range) of the aircraft to a high degree of accuracy. Thus the system will compute tracks and give guidance to the pilot to follow those tracks, not only of the conventional straight-in-to-land variety, but also angular and lateral offset tracks, curved tracks, segmented approach tracks and so on. With MADGE it is possible in principle to select the flight path best suited to the aircraft and landing site desired. A MADGE aircraft precision approach system has recently been commissioned on a North Sea oil production platform, where it is giving helicopters approach guidance down to minimums to be certified by the UK CAA of 200 ft amsl (helipad height 180 ft amsl) and 300 meters (amsl = above mean sea level). This article describes offshore trials of the prototype system on Shell's Leman Bank gas Platform D and reports the results obtained.

• Corporate Authors:

  Shell Oil Company

  1 Shell Plaza, P.O. Box 2463
  Houston, TX  United States  77001
• Authors:
  • Clarke, RWG
• Publication Date: 1978

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 8-12
• Serial:
  • Shell Aviation News
  • Issue Number: 448

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aircraft guidance systems; Equipment; Flight paths; Helicopters; Microwave communication systems; Microwave devices; Navigational aids; Offshore structures
• Uncontrolled Terms: Guidance
• Geographic Terms: North Sea
• Old TRIS Terms: Microwave aircraft digital guidance equipment; Microwave equipment; Offshore operations
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Bridges and other structures;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00195053
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Engineering Index
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 31 1979 12:00AM