Narrative:

While cruising at 6;500 and monitoring ATIS from elp I encountered moderate to severe turbulence. The route is between elp class C airspace and restricted area 5103A. I attempted to maintain altitude between 5;000 and 7;000 feet. I had good ground contact visibility and flight visibility of estimated 3-5 miles. Elp was reporting scattered at 7;000 and broken at 9;000 with 3 miles visibility with blowing dust. Ads-B weather was showing improving weather and both lru and dmn were reporting clear.since the shortest route was ahead I decided to continue and not reverse course. As I neared the ewm VOR both my garmin gtn 750 and 480 GPS receivers lost all satellite reception. My garmin portable with panel mounted antenna continued to receive satellite reception and I used it for navigation. It also lost reception briefly about 5 miles west of ewm; but reestablished quickly. I tried to contact elp approach but was unable. At approximately 10 miles west of ewm sky conditions were clear and visibility was unlimited. I landed at [my destination] and when my wheels touched down both garmin receivers regained satellite reception. I have flown this route many times over the past 15 years and never lost satellite reception. The garmin equipment is 4 years old and software was updated [very recently.] I have never experienced total loss of satellite reception before. I have flown with this equipment over the entire us; alaska and the caribbean. I checked my track on the garmin portable 560 and it appears that I did not enter class C or R-5103A; but because of possible navigational error I may have entered the air space. I have extensive experience in electronics and have a FCC commercial operator license. I believe the problem was caused by static electricity build up on the airframe; since the problem resolved on touch down and the portable GPS receiver was not effected since the antenna was inside the aircraft. Had I been on a RNAV approach this loss could have signal could have caused an accident. I did attempt to switch to VOR navigation; but the combination of turbulence and close proximity to the VOR made using the NAVAID difficult.if static electricity caused the loss navigation and location reporting with ads-B this will be a serious issue when GPS nav is our only option.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Cessna 210 pilot reported losing GPS signal while flying; and attributed the loss to possible static electricity.

Narrative: While cruising at 6;500 and monitoring ATIS from ELP I encountered moderate to severe turbulence. The route is between ELP Class C airspace and restricted area 5103A. I attempted to maintain altitude between 5;000 and 7;000 feet. I had good ground contact visibility and flight visibility of estimated 3-5 miles. ELP was reporting scattered at 7;000 and broken at 9;000 with 3 miles visibility with blowing dust. ADS-B weather was showing improving weather and both LRU and DMN were reporting clear.Since the shortest route was ahead I decided to continue and not reverse course. As I neared the EWM VOR both my Garmin GTN 750 and 480 GPS receivers lost all satellite reception. My Garmin portable with panel mounted antenna continued to receive satellite reception and I used it for navigation. It also lost reception briefly about 5 miles west of EWM; but reestablished quickly. I tried to contact ELP approach but was unable. At approximately 10 miles West of EWM sky conditions were clear and visibility was unlimited. I landed at [my destination] and when my wheels touched down both Garmin receivers regained satellite reception. I have flown this route many times over the past 15 years and never lost satellite reception. The Garmin equipment is 4 years old and software was updated [very recently.] I have never experienced total loss of satellite reception before. I have flown with this equipment over the entire US; Alaska and the Caribbean. I checked my track on the Garmin portable 560 and it appears that I did not enter Class C or R-5103A; but because of possible navigational error I may have entered the air space. I have extensive experience in electronics and have a FCC commercial operator license. I believe the problem was caused by static electricity build up on the airframe; since the problem resolved on touch down and the portable GPS receiver was not effected since the antenna was inside the aircraft. Had I been on a RNAV approach this loss could have signal could have caused an accident. I did attempt to switch to VOR navigation; but the combination of turbulence and close proximity to the VOR made using the NAVAID difficult.If static electricity caused the loss navigation and location reporting with ADS-B this will be a serious issue when GPS nav is our only option.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.