Inside of 12 Weeks Until ADS-B Mandate Deadline, Sacramento Satellite Shop Is Already Booking For Q1 2020

In spite of the fact that there are still 12 weeks remaining until the FAA’s mandate deadline for Automatic Dependent Survelliance-Broadcast (ADS-B), Bob Hazy, the Manager of Duncan Aviation’s Satellite Avionics Shop in Sacramento, California, says that shop is already booking upgrades through March 2020.

Hazy and his crew moved into a spacious new hangar at the Mather Airport in late June 2019, and the shop has been busy ever since. For the entire fourth quarter of 2019, the Sacramento Satellite Shop is booked with work to bring aircraft into compliance for the ADS-B mandate.

“Other than some time in the schedule in February 2020, we’re booked from now through March 2020,” says Hazy. “We’ve found a nice little niche out here; nearly all of our ADS-B upgrades have been on either turboprops or small jets.”

Many of the aircraft Hazy and the Sacramento crew are working on are equipped with the Collins Aerospace ProLine avionics suite, and they’re using the CMD Flight Solutions Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for those upgrades. “We send the transponders to the Duncan Aviation facility in Lincoln, Nebraska, for the upgrade,” says Hazy, “and because we’ve done so many of them, we’re turning these aircraft around in as little as a week and a half.”

Although the schedule at the Sacramento Satellite Avionics Shop is not yet completely full for 1Q 2020, Hazy has quoted several additional aircraft for ADS-B upgrades, including a Learjet 45. “Before the FAA’s deadline, we have scheduled ADS-B upgrades on two King Air B300s, a King Air B200, three Pilatus aircraft, a Cessna 500, a Cessna 560, and a Premier,” says Hazy. “In January and March, we’ll be working on a King Air 200 and a Pilatus.”

Hazy says all of the customers who have scheduled their upgrades for 2020 are aware that they won’t be flying until they complete the upgrade to ADS-B. “One customer would like to get his airplane upgraded before the January 1, 2020, deadline, but he knows we just have no capacity in our schedule,” says Hazy. “I’ve spoken to numerous operators who have not yet upgraded, and I’d guess we’re going to be busy through June 2020 with ADS-B work.”

(Source: Duncan Aviation news release)

FMI: www.duncanaviation.aero