Happy ADS-B Day! It's Begun

5 years of hoopla and we have finally arrived. Glad my little GTX-345 was installed before the rush when rebates were available and shops were discounting equipment with labor capacity.

A promonate shop in my area is so booked out with major panel upgrades they no longer accept single ADS-B installs. Interesting the back log at av shops is not only ADS-B, but even more pilots taking advantage of new low cost panel options to upgrade their plane.

 

It actually begins tomorrow. 91.225 says that the rule takes effect "After January 1, 2020"

 

LOL, yeah, that's funny.

 

A large portion of Military aircraft and Airlines do not comply yet but a Cessna 150 flying into a area required by ADS-B without one and it will make front page news. 21 percent of DoD's total aircraft inventory will be ready, but officials have said that ADS-B (Out) modifications present a significant depot scheduling challenge, and, in some cases, engineering challenges, such as for fighter aircraft. By 2025, DoD plans to have about 62 percent of its aircraft equipped with ADS-B (Out), including 35 percent of fighter aircraft, 67 percent of helicopters.

 

FIVE years? I remember seeing plenty of hoopla in 2011.

I’m plenty old enough to remember the Y2K hoopla. That was during the prime of my career in the automation software world. I was amazed at the number of people who bought bottled water and can goods because electric power as we knew it was going to cease.

In a loosely related way, this reminds me of all that. Waiting to hear the comments once the time mark passes.

I wonder how many planes will lose all lift and drop out of the sky.

that said, I’m glad that I am set up with solid out and in solutions in both planes.

 

The Sky Beacon is so simple, cheap and quick to install I don't see a problem if you need it and can use it. I did it even though I can live without it quite easily since I can't (or won't) afford flying into class B and Class C now that all the FBOs are charging bizjet fees. And that 2500' AGL exception means I can fly as high as usual on most flights.

 

Is that when the new decade actually starts, too?

 

Pedantically, the new decade starts in 2021, but we digress...

 

With that logic, the current millennium began in 2001, right?

 

That is correct.

 

BUT the Sky Beacon isn't approved for all planes... Also, you don't need to be equipped just to fly into class B and C airports, you also need it to fly THROUGH class C airspace, and INTO the Mode C veil of class B aiports (not to mention the 10K' limit).

It may not affect you much, but it affects a great many who never land at class B or C airports.

 

I'm almost done with my GDL 82 installation; I'm waiting on a right angle TNC connector for the RG400 coax connection to the GPS antenna. I'm based at a Class D airport now, so the week delay isn't affecting my flying.

 

I’m just so glad that we can put an end to all those mid-air collision’s. Now I don’t even have to look out the windows while flying along on my magenta line.

 

NexGen NexGen NexGen!

If you say it ten times fast while clicking your heels together, nothing still happens. But you got a tiny ankle workout.

 

Right now, ADS-B in appears to be more obviously valuable than ADS-B out. But broadcasting you own position to other equipped A/C has to increase safety. It remains to be seen how much it will improve ATC service in practice in the near term.

 

And in other New Years news in Albuquerque you will no longer get your groceries loaded in plastic bags. Not even paper bags. Gotta bring your own bags now.

But at least with online ordering I can cut out a lot of shopping.

 

I went the NGT-9000 route. It was a complete bear to install and program. My mechanic and I spent over 20 hours on it. But the deed is done and it's working perfectly.

 

It’ll get everyone believing all aircraft are transmitting and lulled into safety sleep, and then a big crash where one isn’t.

For bonus points one can be transmitting an incorrect location. Or someone can spoof multiple targets from a ground or air transmitter. Or...

The design is full of massive flaws. Not the least of which being that it’s really two systems that require FAA equipment to be working for one group of aircraft to see the others.

Design in single points of failure much? LOL.

Engineering wise, it’s pretty much a cluster... of 90s vintage tech. It’s kinda like someone handing you an iPhone 4 today. “Well it’s better than nothing I guess. It can make ... a call.” Haha.

 

I've been ADS-B compliant for three years now. I do find it a little distracting in that it depicts aircraft that are not any kind of potential conflict yet I find myself looking for them, more out of curiosity than anything else, but it still means that I'm occupied with a useless task.

 

More likely, ATC will not even notice. I know of "a friend" that forgot to turn his transponder on while flying under bravo airspace once - nothing happened.

 

Can they eliminate the stupid “pucks” now and just broadcast all aircraft all the time!?

 

So if you online order your groceries how do you get your own bags to them?

Gawd I couldn't believe the self-serving hoopla around that.
I have a standing rule. I don't ever bother to "prepare" for any disaster the exact date of which can be predicted. Y2K, Mayan calendars, whatever.

Now, those unpredictable disasters, that's a different situation entirely.

 

And for most of America they don’t NEED ADSB even in 2020.

Personally I’ll probably get some ADSB stuff in a year or so when the rush marketing wears off and there are hopefully some better products on the market.

 

It's a nice unit. Worked great until the GPS rollover, and then working well again after the v3.2.2 software update to fix it all.

 

I am glad the waiting is finally over.

 

I wait until the delivery, then take the products out of the box and into my own bags.... yeesh, do I have to think of everything here.??

And I am already working on getting Y3K compliant...

 

All the procrastination comes home to roost tomorrow, Jan 2. Some will probably be in denial about the need to comply. It will be amusing to see how many try to get popup permission to fly in rule airspace without equipage. And see what actually happens or not...

I'm glad I bit the bullet almost 2 years ago, when the tech was more mature, competition drove prices down, and before the install backlog crunch developed. Too early adoption risks paying premium for older, less mature technology, too late hits the demand curve and higher prices. It's still financially painful to equip and fly safe and compliant IFR even in a little flib.

 

Uh. You realize "in" only sees aircraft with "out", don't you?

 

so....how long did you have to get the ADS-B upgrade? lol

 

I still say they are going to defer for another 10 years to give people time.

 

So the Y2K panic can be reassessed now, and it should be directed at 2001? What an oddity.

 

I really like ours. I keep the traffic on the left side and weather on the right side. It is nice having it on a separate display.

Ours was no problem to install. Writing the check for the install was pretty painful!

 

"In" also sees anyone with mode C if they are within range of an ADS-B ground station. I see mode C traffic all the time. "In" also brings FIS-B WX as well as traffic alerting, a significant benefit.

 

yup.....but only in the terminal areas.

 

And how do you know when the Mode C pass through from the radar site is working...? Or the UAT to 1080?

There’s no NOTAM system for any of it. Let alone a missed packet being blocked by your fuselage.

Better look outside.

 

Well, at 1500 AGL, coverage is pretty much continuous in the eastern half of the US. Its spottier in the mountain west at that altitude. At 3000-5000 AGL, ADS-B coverage is pretty continuous everywhere except for the western mountains. Here is the coverage map.

I haven't lost ADS-B coverage enroute anywhere in the NE, although I see that some towers are occasionally NOTAMed out of service.

 

ADS-B is of course not an excuse to avoid looking for traffic. But mode C only aircraft are visible to the system. The NGT-9000 will even tell you if the target is identified by mode C or otherwise if you call up the info block. You will certainly see more traffic on your TIS-B display than you will ever spot by eye, so it's a helpful aid. I have yet to spot anything by eye that was outside 2 miles unless it's an airliner.

ADS-B tower outages do show up in NOTAMs, BTW. Finding them easily is another thing.

 

You'll lose it in western MD....out near Cumberland.

Mode S needs the terminal area also.....ask me how I know.

 

Yeah. A few mountains out that way obscuring line of sight. Probably a good reason not to drop XM weather.

 

Doesn’t cover the rest of the “back end” required for this tech abortion to operate correctly though.

I’d trust the NOTAMs on a system FAA has clearly stated over and over is NOT primary about as far as I could throw it.

It’s engineered to be what we would call “best effort” and not “fail safe” in the systems world.

The over the air interface is what we call “spray and pray”.

Repudiation and identification of users is clear down at “I sure hope someone entered it correctly at install”, which is incredibly bad engineering.

All with 1990s levels of tech. LOL. In terms of modern RF data systems, it’s basically a joke.

SMS has more data loss prevention than anything yet deployed in “NexGen”. And that isn’t saying much.