Lead,
True, except that the VDL mode 4 trial in Miami led the FAA to basically abandon VDL-4.
Airlines were buying aircraft back in late 1997 that had 1090 fitted whether the airline wanted it or not.
ICAO dropped the ball because the Air Navigation Commission had not recommended to the Council what the tech standard would be so the aircraft manufacturers went with what they thought was the way to go.
Hence, 1090-ES.
Talk about red tape and crap in ICAO.
CPDLC was the issue and only belatedly did ICAO come out with a tech spec that reflected the equipment that was already fitted, and had been for years, in aircraft that were flying around.
The tech 'guru' at AsA said back in 2012/2013 that for UAT to be viable in Australia given that AsA would have to install re-transmitters to blend the 1090ES data with the UAT data so that 'in-out' would eventually be available data to all aircraft regardless of what equipment they had fitted, meant that the OZ GA fleet 'had to double between now and 2020 and double again between 2020 and 2025' from a cost benefit point of view.
UAT has its main advantage in the USA from the provision of 'real time' weather information to aircraft (deemed a good idea after the unfortunate DC 9 crash/ breakup in weather that was not visible to ATC).
The FAA said it would not provide that weather service over UAT and it is 'third party' providers in the US who do this.
No one, including ARINC, Jeppersen et al, considered the OZ market big enough to warrant the expense of providing that service in OZ. Needless to say, AsA had no interest in stepping into providing that service either.
Unfortunately, the AsA man I spoke of died and the discussion did not progress beyond that point.
At the last Air Navigation Conference in ICAO, there was another 'push' for VDL-4 from Russia. The use of it for determining 'windshear' on approach to land.
Luke warm enthusiasm I believe is the best way to describe the way that has gone regardless of whether it is a good idea or not.
The whole thing is a mess and shows that lack of coordination between ICAO and the OEMs will never produce an acceptable result.
Last edited by actus reus; 29th May 2016 at 21:23.