http://www.aero-news.net/fb/index.cfm?do=podcasts.viewEpisode&episodesid=2149
Listen to the above podcast on Aero-News.net about the complexities and problems with ADS-B as positioned by the FAA in the recent NPRM.
Showing posts with label Alaska Air Carriers Association. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alaska Air Carriers Association. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Equipage Bill Signed...but where is the money for General Aviation aircraft?
Governor Palin offered this bill on Jan. 25, 2008 with $4.8 million, she did her job. Now, it is up to industry to come up with $34 million more to equip 95 percent of Alaska's aircraft by an FAA deadline, can they do it?
A bill to offer a low-interest loan program to aircraft owners who install a new digital link technology in their aircraft was signed by Gov. Sarah Palin on April 9 in Juneau.
Senate Bill 249, which Palin sponsored and introduced Jan. 25, provides Alaskan airplane owners the opportunity to use a new low-interest revolving loan program to purchase Capstone-like avionics equipment for their aircraft.
The technology, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, was tested in Alaska and was formally called the Capstone Safety Project.
ADS-B is a data link that uses ultra-high frequency radio to send and receive information about other aircraft that uses the technology. Along with multi-function screens and air traffic displays, the equipment also gives pilots graphical weather information, terrain maps and flight information, including temporary flight restrictions and notices to airmen. ADS-B is nearly 10 times more accurate than radar and operates in real time.
The $4.8 million loan program for installation is offered through the state Department of Community, Commerce and Economic Development.
The program is also a key component to the Federal Aviation Administration's plans to adopt ADS-B throughout the state, according to the governor.
Statewide aviation officials, working in the Capstone Statewide Agreement Implementation Committee, last year signed a memorandum of agreement with the FAA to obtain $34 million and equip 95 percent of the most frequently flown aircraft. If this is accomplished, the FAA has said that it will invest $493 million in services and infrastructure improvements across Alaska.
Industry officials tried lobbying legislators for additional funding, but came up empty handed. That forced the idea of offering a 4 percent loan to commercial aviation operators, according to industry officials.
“This legislation is a crucial step to improving aviation safety,” Palin said in a written release. “Studies have shown very significant improvements in aviation safety in the areas around Bethel and Southeast where the FAA has built ground stations and planes have been outfitted with the new equipment. We are hoping for similar results over a much larger area of Alaska.”
Alaska has the highest number of pilots per capita of any state - about one in 78 Alaskans is a pilot. Alaska also has the highest aviation accident rates in the nation, three to four times higher than the national average for commercial aviation.
The FAA plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on ground stations that transmit the ADS-B signal, but it will be up to aircraft owners to outfit their planes.
FAA officials said nearly 4,000 aircraft statewide would need to install and use the equipment to justify spending nearly $500 million now in the future.
The FAA recently announced it intends to have NexGen ADS-B installed at most high aviation traffic areas in U.S. and in Alaska by 2013, and will have the technology deployed nationwide by 2020.
NexGen is the FAA's official term for the next generation of aircraft control systems, also known as ADS-B.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1350207/governor_signs_bill_approving_loans_for_aircraft_safety_equipment/
http://www.alaskajournal.com/
http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/arc/programs/capstone/?CFID=32230658&CFTOKEN=da7e758f27c879cc-71C2099C-1372-4138-C96EF28CB07377E6&jsessionid=1230bc5481fa252c3131
http://www.cheltonflightsystems.com/default.htm
A bill to offer a low-interest loan program to aircraft owners who install a new digital link technology in their aircraft was signed by Gov. Sarah Palin on April 9 in Juneau.
Senate Bill 249, which Palin sponsored and introduced Jan. 25, provides Alaskan airplane owners the opportunity to use a new low-interest revolving loan program to purchase Capstone-like avionics equipment for their aircraft.
The technology, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, was tested in Alaska and was formally called the Capstone Safety Project.
ADS-B is a data link that uses ultra-high frequency radio to send and receive information about other aircraft that uses the technology. Along with multi-function screens and air traffic displays, the equipment also gives pilots graphical weather information, terrain maps and flight information, including temporary flight restrictions and notices to airmen. ADS-B is nearly 10 times more accurate than radar and operates in real time.
The $4.8 million loan program for installation is offered through the state Department of Community, Commerce and Economic Development.
The program is also a key component to the Federal Aviation Administration's plans to adopt ADS-B throughout the state, according to the governor.
Statewide aviation officials, working in the Capstone Statewide Agreement Implementation Committee, last year signed a memorandum of agreement with the FAA to obtain $34 million and equip 95 percent of the most frequently flown aircraft. If this is accomplished, the FAA has said that it will invest $493 million in services and infrastructure improvements across Alaska.
Industry officials tried lobbying legislators for additional funding, but came up empty handed. That forced the idea of offering a 4 percent loan to commercial aviation operators, according to industry officials.
“This legislation is a crucial step to improving aviation safety,” Palin said in a written release. “Studies have shown very significant improvements in aviation safety in the areas around Bethel and Southeast where the FAA has built ground stations and planes have been outfitted with the new equipment. We are hoping for similar results over a much larger area of Alaska.”
Alaska has the highest number of pilots per capita of any state - about one in 78 Alaskans is a pilot. Alaska also has the highest aviation accident rates in the nation, three to four times higher than the national average for commercial aviation.
The FAA plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on ground stations that transmit the ADS-B signal, but it will be up to aircraft owners to outfit their planes.
FAA officials said nearly 4,000 aircraft statewide would need to install and use the equipment to justify spending nearly $500 million now in the future.
The FAA recently announced it intends to have NexGen ADS-B installed at most high aviation traffic areas in U.S. and in Alaska by 2013, and will have the technology deployed nationwide by 2020.
NexGen is the FAA's official term for the next generation of aircraft control systems, also known as ADS-B.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1350207/governor_signs_bill_approving_loans_for_aircraft_safety_equipment/
http://www.alaskajournal.com/
http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/arc/programs/capstone/?CFID=32230658&CFTOKEN=da7e758f27c879cc-71C2099C-1372-4138-C96EF28CB07377E6&jsessionid=1230bc5481fa252c3131
http://www.cheltonflightsystems.com/default.htm
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Will future ADS-B in Alaska be the real deal?
Feds: At play in the fields of the Lord!
Anchorage, AK-(April 13, 2008)-- It has come to my attention that some within the Federal Aviation Administration are not being completely forthcoming about the information that it is giving in regards to the implementation of the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast technology here in Alaska. For that matter how ADS-B will work in the National Airspace System may be skewed as well.
The purpose of this blog is to start a dialog with those in Alaska (or anyone anywhere) who believes that the Universal Access Transceiver version of ADS-B tested here in Alaska is the 'Right' way to go with future installations.
What am I saying...? I am asking for information about whether Alaska is going to get tricked into getting the 1090 MHz extended squitter, or are we going to get the two-way UAT ADS-B technology responsible for creating a 40+ percent safer flying environment in South West Alaska, and which won the 2007 Collier Trophy (http://www.ainonline.com/news/single-news-page/article/ads-b-program-wins-collier-trophy/?no_cache=1) .
I hope to ask some tough question here, so lets define why this is important.
Well--the hope is that individuals who believe in the hard won Capstone Program that proved how technology could benefit pilots and passenger safety by adding additional two-way situational awareness into the cockpit of Rural flying aircraft can use this vehicle to inform me ( a media person) with real facts.
These facts are not available to me by asking Federal Aviation Administration officials for story related information. Either by email, phone conversation, or by the Freedom of Information Act.
In fact, many of the FOIA's that I have submitted in the past year about ADS-B here in Alaska come back as "No known information on this topic is available."
That's odd because many of you who will read this have given me the names of documents, programs, contracts and meetings that are real, but according to the FAA have never happened, thus are not available via FOIA.
Strange?
It is my quest, and my job to inform industry and business about anything and everything that affects change to the economics of aviation in Alaska. Remember I am not the enemy media, but a messenger.
Without the raw-pure-facts, how can anyone hope to report an accurate story?
Please respond and help me by posting your knowledge of ADS-B UAT or the fake 1090 ES version as my plea for facts, and the truth. Let the facts speak for themselves.
Consider me the messenger for the Alaska aviation industry, and your inside knowledge as help for a pilots need to know about the goings on around the politics of ADS-B technology.
This a last chance to keep the Capstone Safety Program's legacy on track here in Alaska, use it.
Please respond!
RS-
http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2006/060510ads-b.html
http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/101506/tra_20061015010.shtml
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