Benefits To Agency Clear; Less So For Many Pilots

"Fairly one-sided." That's how the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association sums up the FAA's proposal to equip most of the US civil aircraft fleet with automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) technology by 2020.

As ANN reported, the FAA announced its plan October 2. The agency's proposed rulemaking would require all aircraft flying above 10,000 feet MSL, or within Class B or C terminal airspace, with the satellite-based technology, in a move the FAA intends to reduce its infrastructure of aging ground-based radar systems.

"This represents a big cost shift for the FAA and should be considered in the funding debate that surrounds the current FAA reauthorization legislation," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "If they want GA pilots to spend thousands of dollars on new avionics, we need to make sure that the expenditures are considered as we assess what GA should pay in fuel taxes in the future FAA budget. Plus, we need to see clearly the safety and operational benefits.

"But also remember, this is a long time off," Boyer added. "We at least have some time to prepare."

The proposal mentions two kinds of ADS-B. "ADS-B out" would act similar to a transponder, where aircraft location and altitude information would be sent out once per second. Under the FAA's implementation plan, traditional services such as flight-following or radar-like vectoring in new locations would not be offered.

Aircraft owners would have to install a display at an additional cost to receive the "ADS-B in" service, which would provide weather and traffic data to the pilot.

The pilot advocacy group says many technical questions have already surfaced in the week since AOPA began its analysis of the proposal. The group had asked for advanced copies of the proposal, AOPA notes... but the FAA did not grant that request.

Boyer said AOPA will brief its members on comments the group plans to submit before the 90-day comment period expires.

"AOPA members will be given access to our full analysis when complete so they may take advantage of our research to compose their own comments," Boyer added.

"Our initial review indicates that much more work needs to be done before the FAA publishes its final rule," said Randy Kenagy, AOPA senior director of strategic planning. "AOPA is committed to working through every one of the issues that will be of concern to members."

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.aopa.org