I don't know if I'll live to see it implemented, but ADS-B is part of what I've been praying for. Now give us reliable communication with Houston Center and some more certified weather reporting, and we'll show the oil companies how well IFR can really work for them.

-Stan-

What are the prime differences between ADS and TCAS ?

slgrossman and others - what certified or FAA acceptable weather reporting facilities do you have in the GOM and what standard do your customers lay down - VFR and IFR?

TheFlyingSquirrel,

If you really want to know the difference (and also want to read an excellent report) you will find it here:

http://www.asc.nasa.gov/aatt/rto/RTOFinal18.pdf

Although the title is "Automatic Dependent Surveillance for Rotorcraft Operations in a Low-Altitude, Non-Radar Environment" it does have enough about TCAS to see the difference.

Oh and by the way, none of us should be sniffy about this announcement, it is excellent news and a potentially huge benefit in safety.

Jim

There are several ASOS stations in the GOM, and a few locations where certified human observations are taken. I don't have the complete list at hand, but there are perhaps 8 or so ASOS stations, from south Texas across to the east side of Louisiana, and maybe a half-dozen manual stations.

Customers generally follow whatever weather minima are in the company ops specs, but a few require higher minima for VFR ops, typically up to 500/3. At least one customer does not permit the use of offshore IFR alternates, which means lots of flights are either done VFR or not flown. I've had proposed flights which would have been easy using an offshore alternate, which had very good weather, but were impossible VFR, because there were no onshore alternates reachable, because the flight was so far offshore. I really can't complain about sitting around doing nothing instead of flying, but having to do flights VFR, scud-running all the way, is no fun, and this customer forces a lot of that through the no offshore alternates rule. I'm not always thrilled about using an offshore alternate when the weather is near minimums, but often it's clear blue and 22 offshore, foggy onshore, and using that offshore alternate is no problem at all.

JimL,

Sniffy....oh heavens not!

Here we are in the year of our Lord 2006 and the FAA finally admits there are helicopters flying about in the Gulf of Mexico. How long has it been? Fifty plus years?

I reckon a Memorandum of Understanding is a good start.

Now when we actually see the money, equipment, and FAA guys in the oil patch...then we know it is going to happen.