I get the feeling I am pissing you off SSD...not my intention...just asking some questions is all...and airing my concerns as someone who uses the entire airspace column from very, very low
to FL450
As you have stated this is the biggest deal in any of our careers...as you also stated it has come a little out of the blue...we are being asked to mentally shift gears from the attitudes of the last 15 years or so to some sort of potential airspace nirvana just around the next bend...and all for free when user pays has been the rules of the game for a very long time.
Thank you for your big picture answers.
I was reading through the JPC document again a few hours ago and noticed the final stage would be an additional 11 ground units bringing the total to 39...given that the coverage map showing 28 had only one unit on the east coast at/around BN I can perhaps be forgiven for wondering what was going to happen in the rest of the J curve ADS-B wise?
The final 11 units were characterised as final state 'full coverage' so I guess most of the 11 units will be sat on strategic hill tops in the J curve.
As you say we have several years of electronic developement to go before boxes are actually being removed from their packaging...IF the US GA market takes up the ADS-B 1090 es technology that will spur manufacturers like Garmin to come up with a cleaver box....there is no other way the economies of scale will make it affordable.
I suspect the costs will be a higher and the savings to industry perhaps not as great as depicted...ever known anything like this not to work out that way?...there will be much angst, mutterings and doubt cast about but we may just end up with something pretty reasonable.
And I bet when all is said and done I will be sat up at FL390 about to descend into YSSY with as much vectoring, speed control and holding as we get now...or maybe you will have given me speed control 1500nm earlier...faster or slower it doesn't matter...I will have been throwing fuel out the back at an increased rate over ECON
Actually I just thought of something really funny...ADS-B might benefit GA
more than the big end of town...after all the biggest limiting factor for the airlines
by far is tarmac...be that runways or parking...as you say ADS-B will make airport movements in bad weather safer...I don't think they will elevate rates much because taxiing in fog is scary enough at 10kts thank you very much...I dont care what gadgets they come up with I won't be taxiing at 25kts like I can on a sunny day.
I really think the upper level enroute savings are a load of hot cock...at best this technology might slow the rate at which things get worse but that is about it. The only real significant savings to be had are in the arrival/departure phases and ADS-B doesn't give you more tarmac or even more terminal airspace.
GA has virtually no such constraints except around places like Sydney.
Do I think ADS-B and a flight plan will get me a clearance through YSSY in my Bonanza where Mode C/Flight plan doesn't now?
Nope.
Do I think AsA will dramatically reduce their charges once they have clawed back the subsidy?
Nope...it will be like your car/house insurance no claim bonus...sorry to sound cynical...there will be plausible sounding reasons why enroute/terminal charges don't reduce....something along the lines of "Hey they aren't as high as they would have been"
GA might actually be the biggest net beneficiary...wouldn't that be funny
