Eurocontrol requirement

[Mixed Up]

The following is a current Eurocontrol "price enquiry":


Procurement of Lightweight GA ADS-B 1090 Avionics
The EUROCONTROL CASCADE Programme1 is seeking to procure lightweight 1090 MHz Extended Squitter Airborne Systems (1090 LAS) suitable for installation on ultra light aircraft and gliders. These systems must provide Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) reception capability over 1090 MHz Extended Squitter and a cockpit display of traffic information. They are intended for use in flight trials for validation of General Aviation Airborne Air Traffic Situation Awareness applications.
At least five (5) 1090LAS need to be procured and they must be conformant to the specification in this document. Each system shall consist of
• 1090 MHz Extended Squitter (1090ES) receiver,
• Control Display of Traffic Information (CDTI), and
• GPS receiver providing own aircraft position and UTC time synchronisation.

The required CDTI is expected to be implemented on a personal digital assistant or an equivalent lightweight handheld display system.


What's this all about and should I feel worried?

[IO540]

ADS-B is a very good traffic proximity warning system, where each aircraft is transmitting its GPS-derived 3D position.

Potentially it is much cheaper, much more accurate and less power demanding than a standard Mode C/S transponder, not to mention the five-figure cost of a TCAS-type traffic warning system. It requires no ground equipment.

It sounds like Eurocontrol are doing a trial of some stuff which might one day be mandated for all VFR traffic.

I wouldn't worry about it. Nothing is likely to happen for years and years.

Does anyone know the current status of the "VFR transponder" issue? I thought everybody had to install a Mode S by 2009. I know IFR traffic needs them more or less now and I have got one (GTX330, £2500+VAT installed).

[robin]

There not trying to make all aircraft carry TCAS are they?

[Mark 1]

There was an update posted by the CAA last week on http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?categoryid=810&pagetype=90&pageid=4601

Looks like the RIA document is still a few weeks away.

[IO540]

There not trying to make all aircraft carry TCAS are they?

No. Just the position/altitude/etc reporting portion. But ADS-B does open up a route to relatively cheap TCAS.

Looks like the RIA document is still a few weeks away.

So what happened to the 2009 VFR deadline? Surely, there should have been an RIA for the mandatory fitting of Mode S for IFR too, no?

Not that, IMHO, Mode S is an issue for an aircraft owner or operator who actually flies. I never understood the "big brother" fuss. The real problem is with planes which don't have an electrical system, and I don't see this has been adequately addressed as yet.

BTW the end user list of a GTX330 is under £2000+VAT. The cheapest possible installation is probably about £300, and could be much more than that if no transponder is fitted already.

[Mark 1]

Surely, there should have been an RIA for the mandatory fitting of Mode S for IFR too, no?

There was.

[bookworm]

There not trying to make all aircraft carry TCAS are they?

In essence, they're trialling a very cheap TCAS-like system. Instead of interrogating other transponders, it listens for other aircraft to send an id and position and displays them. It works very well if everyone plays along.

[Lionel Hutz]

From AOPA USA.

It looks like a very good system. Much better and cheaper than Mode S


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alaska leads the way for ADS-B
It's the toughest proving ground in the world. And Alaska has proven that ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast) is the affordable technology of the future, making general aviation safer and the FAA more efficient.

"So much technology works its way up here from the Lower 48," AOPA President Phil Boyer said this weekend at the Alaska State Aviation Trade Show and Conference in Anchorage. "You are to be congratulated for being the first to show the world that ADS-B is the ground-breaking technology for aviation of the twenty-first century."

Alaska uncovers the glitches
It's called Capstone in Alaska, where ADS-B has progressed from an idea, to a proof-of-concept, to a full "beta version" that is already saving lives.

But like any development project, there have been some setbacks, including most recently when the ADS-B targets were taken off controllers' scopes because the procedures for using that information haven't been fully defined.

"The Alaskan proving ground has helped uncover the glitches — both technical and regulatory — and now we're getting close to version 1.0 to deploy throughout the nation," Boyer said.

ADS-B for the world
In fact, deployed around the world. Delegations from China, Ethiopia, and South Africa will be visiting AOPA headquarters in the near future to see ADS-B in action. "If you were building a system from scratch, this is what you would do today. It can be deployed in the most remote areas; it's affordable for third-world countries," Boyer said.

But even in Alaska, many pilots still have a hard time understanding exactly how the system can replace radar and send weather data to the cockpit, and provide collision avoidance.


Illustration by John Macneil
Like an airborne Internet
"With GPS, a pilot knows his exact position in space," Boyer explained. "Now what if you could tell everybody else where you are, by using a wireless Internet connection? And what if you could send more data through that connection, just like the Internet works in both directions?"

That's ADS-B.

A GPS receiver sends the aircraft's position to the "Internet connection" — called a universal access transceiver (UAT). A simple two-way radio broadcasts the plane's position and altitude information every second.

Other aircraft can listen in on that transmission and plot every transmitting aircraft's position on a display screen.

Better than radar?
Air traffic control is on that party line as well and can receive the automatic position reports through simple, remote ground receivers. Those receivers can be installed in places where radar would be too costly or impractical, meaning ATC surveillance can be extended to places where it's never been available before.

ADS-B is not subject to radar's "line of sight" limits, and it updates more frequently. Because radar sweeps in a circle, it only "knows" where an aircraft is for certain once every six seconds (12 seconds for en route radar), while ADS-B updates every second.

A better ELT
But more important for the average GA pilot, ADS-B makes a much better ELT — emergency locator transmitter. Whether or not you're talking to ATC, the ATC computers are recording the position of your aircraft — every second. If search and rescue needs to find you, they'll know the exact track of your flight, probably up to the last few seconds. That data-recording feature has already saved the life of at least one Alaskan pilot.

Traffic and weather together
For GA, the greatest benefit of ADS-B lies in its two-way transmission capability. While an aircraft is transmitting its position to other aircraft and the ground, the ground can be transmitting weather graphics and text back to the aircraft. (It's called FIS-B, flight information service-broadcast.)

AOPA has insisted that this basic weather information be available for free. That means pilots in any ADS-B equipped aircraft anywhere in the country will have the same weather resources in the cockpit that they now have on the ground for flight planning — NEXRAD weather radar images no more than six minutes old, current area and terminal weather forecasts (TAFs), and current weather reports (METARs).

And not just weather, but traffic information as well, including the position of other non-ADS-B equipped aircraft. (Yet another acronym — TIS-B, for traffic information service-broadcast.) That's because current tracon radar systems can transmit the position of every aircraft they're "painting" up the two-way datalink.

Free FIS-B and TIS-B are already available in Alaska and some of the East Coast. The FAA has announced that it will be installing ADS-B ground stations throughout the rest of the nation, making FIS-B and TIS-B available elsewhere. The agency says the full transition to ADS-B will likely take 20 years.

Traffic and weather together, for free. Not a bad deal at all. And we can thank our fellow pilots in Alaska for proving that it will work.

[robin]

"Now what if you could tell everybody else where you are, by using a wireless Internet connection? And what if you could send more data through that connection, just like the Internet works in both directions?"

Well I guess this might mean a charge for the service? As we know the risk of a mid air in the open FIR is relatively small. As was once notably said,

"...little corridors called airways were invented which increased the risk so much that they had to employ air traffic controllers to keep the aeroplanes apart"

As someone who works in the field of technology, it astounds me the degree to which the powers-that-be want to pour millions into finding technological solutions for problems that don't warrant the expenditure - then want those who don't benefit to pay for it.

[S-Works]

I have a Garmin GTX330 in my Rocket connected to the GNS430, I now hvae an extra screen that shows traffic (or I should say is capable of it!) and the main map page has a line on the bottom telling me no traffic data available.

I assume this TIS is based on ADSB?

It is a shame we are paying all this money for no return when the potential is huge.

I did a 700nm airways trip yesterday and not one agency was Mode S capable! So who exactly has mode S?

[IO540]

I think what you are looking at is ground-based TIS such as they have in the USA, where the ground radar sends its traffic picture to all suitably equipped aircraft, in a brief squirt of data within the normal Mode S interrogation.

It's possible that ADS-B equipment would display traffic on the same screen in the GNS430 or whatever but I have no idea.

If you look at how many people moan about a £5 increase in some landing fee, and look at the ongoing war over Mode S, and the general resistance to carrying or using Mode C (thus making an RIS worth very little much of the time) I wouldn't lose any sleep over whether your existing avionics are ADS-B compatible :O

[bookworm]

From AOPA USA.
It looks like a very good system. Much better and cheaper than Mode S

Uhuh?

Garmin is proud to introduce the GDL 90™ — general aviation's first certified ADS-B Universal Access Transceiver (UAT).
...
Garmin part number: 013-00176-01

Suggested Retail Price:
$7995.00 U.S.D. (for domestic US market only)

The GTX 330 Mode S transponder (1090ES datalink) has a $4835 list price tag.

Both are in principle capable of supporting ADS-B. No one has ever satisfactorily explained to me why the UAT should work out cheaper than a Mode S transponder with 1090ES capability. With electronics, it's all about volume, over which the development costs are spread.

The advantage of the GTX 330, of course, is that it also responds to Mode A/C and Mode S ground interrogation, as well as interrogation from TCAS, while we wait for ADS-B.

[bookworm]

I did a 700nm airways trip yesterday and not one agency was Mode S capable! So who exactly has mode S?

Why do you say that they weren't Mode S capable? Did you ask them all?

[slim_slag]

One gets the feeling that, in the USA, Mode S is a stopgap measure and only being required in lower airspace for Part 135 and up. The current goal appears to be get ADS-B working and then think about mandating that for the whole fleet, GA included. So the FAA are not going to make your spamcans fit Mode S. It looks like the Europeans are heading down the path of forcing everybody to fit Mode S without the benefit of the huge volume savings from American sales. Soon after the FAA will require ADS-B and they will become nice and cheap, just in time for EASA to tell the GA fleet to take out the mode S and put some ADS-B kit in instead (which they will then tell you to turn off as it's overloading ATC and airline pilot's screens)

[bookworm]

One gets the feeling that, in the USA, Mode S is a stopgap measure and only being required in lower airspace for Part 135 and up.

Not so sure about "stopgap".

http://www.faa.gov/asd/ads-b/06-07-02_ADS-B-Overview.pdf sets out the FAA position.

[slim_slag]

A four year old document is an antique in the world of technology :) How about something a couple of weeks (http://www.faa.gov/news/news_story.cfm?contentKey=4172) old. ADS-B is the future, and GA in the US will not be using Mode S as we know it. Yes, it could change again in four years time, but that doesn't mean my feeling is wrong.

[bookworm]

There's no difference in policy between the documents. There's no reason why GA shouldn't use 1090ES, which will be the interoperable ADS-B datalink technology of choice worldwide.

[IO540]

they both seem like solutions in seach of a problem

If one takes the self centred view that GA-GA mid-airs are statistically very rare, yes.

But there is a clear case for commercial traffic to have traffic proximity warning. Both from each other and from GA bimblers who, having been trained in the wonderful and infallible art of compass and stopwatch navigation, infringe controlled airspace with regularity :O

[IO540]

WR

I am absolutely definitely not going to start another "GPS thread" but if you read the Ontrack report you find that about 18% of infringers were using a moving map GPS.

I would suggest that 18% is a vastly lower figure than the % of "serious" pilots that use a GPS routinely, which today is probably very close to 100%.

A day's hanging about your local airport won't fail to establish a massive correlation between aircraft types (and the corresponding pilot attitudes to all things traditional) and the sort of journeys they fly. The "vintage" (however you define that, much of GA is vintage these days) types rarely venture outside the local area, and I would not expect them to feature in the stats.

Whether you think the Ontrack report is a properly produced piece of statistics is another matter. The old timers in this business swear by it, as does the CAA, NATS, etc, and it's probably the best study currently existing. But it is still rather amateurish, with categories like "get-home-itis", "excessive reliance on GPS" (but no category called "excessive reliance on VOR" etc). Relatively little analysis of what the pilot actually did to bust the airspace i.e. the actual human error.

If my job was to get all of powered GA to carry and use a Mode C transponder (or any other piece of kit which can trigger a TCAS traffic proximity alert) I would look at the attitudes that prevail in a large chunk of the pilot population, and would immediately tear all my hair out.

[IO540]

Primary, or Mode A only, returns below CAS are assumed by ATC to be OCAS. So far this seems to have worked, through luck and the sky being quite big :O

I think that it would take only one GA-commercial incident for much more draconian measures to be implemented.

The bigger long-term picture is that the airlines are generally against GA, both in terms of airfields and airspace access. If they got their way, we would have Class A everywhere. This pressure appears in any political scenario where airspace access issues are being considered. It's important to not give airlines, and those that support them, any more ammunition than the several hundred CAS infringements which they have in the UK alone and many more elsewhere (airspace issues are increasingly being planned at the European level).

I think that if US-style mandatory Mode C veils around major airports were made mandatory say 10 years ago, we would not be facing most of the fuss we have now.