The established ground-based procedures — ILS precision, VOR and VOR/DME non-precision, and military TACAN — designed, amended, or maintained where the navaids exist or are planned.
Conventional procedures are tied to physical navaids — a localizer and glideslope for an ILS, a VOR (often with DME) for non-precision approaches, or TACAN at military and joint-use fields. They remain the precision backbone at many airports and frequently need amendment as obstacles, equipment, or criteria change.
The industry is steadily transitioning to PBN — the VOR Minimum Operational Network is retiring stations, and ILS rationalization has been studied — so part of our job is honest advice on whether to invest in conventional design, maintain what you have, or migrate to RNAV/PBN. We design and amend both.
Conventional design is less commoditized than RNAV, so it's quoted to the specifics. As a guide: precision (ILS) procedure design typically runs ~$45K–$70K for the procedure work (the localizer/glideslope ground equipment is a separate capital cost); non-precision (VOR/DME, TACAN) ~$20K–$40K. Amendments are scoped to the change. Flight inspection is coordinated separately.
Fields with an existing ILS or VOR that needs amendment or maintenance, military and joint-use airfields with TACAN, and sponsors weighing whether to keep conventional capability or transition to PBN. We'll give you a straight answer either way.
Tell us what navaids you have and what you need — design, amendment, or a migration plan to PBN.
Discuss your navaids Dave@airfieldairspacesafety.com