When is full alignment of the IRU's required?

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When is full alignment of the IRU's required?

IRU alignment creates the reference the inertial navigation system will trust for position and velocity. In airspace without surveillance, you can’t rely on radar or ATC position updates to correct inertial drift, so a full, thorough alignment is needed to establish an accurate navigation solution before you depend on it. Likewise, the first flight of the day is when the inertial sensors may have drifted during downtime, so a full alignment then resets the reference and ensures nav accuracy from release. In areas with active surveillance and current external updates (GPS/air traffic position data), a shorter alignment can be sufficient, but the requirement falls on performing a full alignment in non-surveillance airspace and on the first flight of the day.

IRU alignment creates the reference the inertial navigation system will trust for position and velocity. In airspace without surveillance, you can’t rely on radar or ATC position updates to correct inertial drift, so a full, thorough alignment is needed to establish an accurate navigation solution before you depend on it. Likewise, the first flight of the day is when the inertial sensors may have drifted during downtime, so a full alignment then resets the reference and ensures nav accuracy from release. In areas with active surveillance and current external updates (GPS/air traffic position data), a shorter alignment can be sufficient, but the requirement falls on performing a full alignment in non-surveillance airspace and on the first flight of the day.

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