A CE510 departed a high altitude airport but was unable to get GPS or VOR navigation guidance for the SID; so climbed to MEA of 14;000 FT after ATC refused a similar request. The crew did not inform ATC of the navigation difficulties before the systems returned to normal.
Synopsis
A CE510 departed a high altitude airport but was unable to get GPS or VOR navigation guidance for the SID; so climbed to MEA of 14;000 FT after ATC refused a similar request. The crew did not inform ATC of the navigation difficulties before the systems returned to normal.
Narrative
We were cleared for the departure; climbed to 9;000 FT; and contacted Departure. We programmed the departure into our flight plan with the first and second waypoints. After departing; the GPS essentially locked up and was not showing us track or course information. The course selector would not move out of the GPS mode thereby not allowing us to get navigation data from the VOR either. We had visual contact with the terrain and maneuvered to remain clear of the terrain. Because we had no reliable navigation source we requested an immediate climb to a higher altitude. We were denied; but elected to climb to the MEA in that area. We advised the Controller we were climbing to 14;000 FT for terrain avoidance. Because we weren't sure of our position we elected to climb to a safe altitude to sort the problem out. We did not state to Departure that we had no functioning navigation equipment. After reaching 14;000 FT we leveled and were picked up on radar and given vectors. After repeatedly working with the navigation equipment we finally got it to work and continued on with no further difficulties. We submitted an MEL form to our Maintenance people alerting them to the problem.
Second reporter narrative
We were focused on getting to a safe altitude to sort out the navigation problem and advised ATC as we did so.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.