Automatic Dependent Surveillence Broadcast (ADSB) Out - It's Coming!
The FAA has mandated that as of January 1, 2020 all aircraft will need to be equipped with ADS-b Out capability in order to fly in most airspace where a transponder is needed. While this mandate will only apply to aircraft operated within the United States, I believe that we will see this technology come to Canada as well due to the sheer usefulness of the technology. Many pilots do not understand or have never heard of this technology so I wanted to assemble some information for our pilots.
In its most basic structure, ADS-b replaces ground based radar systems. Currently, a ground based radar system scans the sky looking for objects (like our Cherokee) to reflect the beam back to the station. Using this reflected beam and your transponder, very accurate information can be found regarding your poisiton, altitude and direction. Now, we have all been in a situation where ATC cannot find us for flight following when leaving Collingwood Airport until about 20 miles south of the airport and up at 3000'. ADS-b seeks to change all of that (if it were in Canada!). ADS-b Out, effectively reverses the process of determining aircraft position, altitude and direction to the aircraft and eliminates, that's right, eliminates the need for ground based radar. The aircraft will need to be equipped with an ADS-b Out unit with WAAS GPS which will broadcoast the information on a specific radio frequency: 1090Mz. Most general aviation owners will be upset about the cost of this upgrade, about $3,000-$5,000 today, but the added benefits can be huge. In addition to improved coverage for flight following, ADS-b comes in 2 flavours, IN and OUT. ADS-b IN is where this technology really shines.
ADS-b IN
With all of the aircraft sending there information about poisition, altitude and direction to a ground based receiving station, there is a huge amount of information available regarding the traffic in the sky in any area. Presently, with radar, a person needs to relay the information about conflicting traffic to airplanes in flight following in general aviation anyway. Not so with ADS-b. The ground station will actually continuosly transmit all of that information back into the sky for airpolanes to RECIEVE. If you aircraft is equipped with ADS-b IN as well as OUT, you will receive information about all of the aircraft in your general area. It will then display this information on the screen of your choice providing the pilot with an extremely accurate and real-time picture of the sky around your aircraft. It will also be able to receive real-time weather and NOTAMS. Very powerful stuff.
Check out these links for more information:
