In Flight USA Article Categories
In Flight USA Articles
EAA to FAA: ADS-B Mandate Fraught With Hurdles for GA
Cost, Compliance, Lack of Benefits Preventing Adoption
EAA Vice President of Advocacy and Safety, Sean Elliott, told the FAA on Oct. 28 that while the recreational aviation community is willing to work toward a modernization of the national airspace system, mandated ADS-B compliance is still fraught with too many hurdles to motivate general aviation aircraft owners to install the costly equipment.
Speaking at an FAA-sponsored “call to action” summit on ADS-B and NextGen in Washington, D.C., Elliott emphasized that the low installation rate in GA aircraft thus far–only about 6,200 aircraft out of 157,000 in the fleet––is due to a dubious cost/benefit ratio for aircraft owners. The FAA has mandated that ADS-B be installed in those aircraft by 2020 as a cornerstone of the NextGen system.
Study Calls for Consolidating, Closing More Than 100 Air Traffic Control Facilities
Plan would save $1.7 billion initially plus $1 billion annually.
As the Federal Aviation Administration prepares to close 149 air traffic control towers as part of more than $600 million in spending cuts required by the sequester, a new Reason Foundation study shows how the FAA could save $1 billion a year by consolidating air traffic control centers and Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facilities.
More than 45 percent of U.S. air traffic control centers and 39 percent of TRACONs are over 35 years old. Instead of spending money upgrading these old and often isolated air traffic facilities, the Reason Foundation plan shows how air traffic control operations could be merged into large hubs that would guide air traffic throughout regions of the country.
At NBAA2011, Government, Business Leaders Highlight Business Aviation Value
“Every state benefits from general aviation,” Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) told the Attendees gathered for the NBAA2011 Opening General Session on October 10. “This industry provides 1.2 million manufacturing and service jobs.”
The senator’s message was delivered by each of the policymakers and businesspeople sharing the stage in Las Vegas with NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen. Their work – whether it’s creating jobs, considering safety or other policies, growing a multinational company or providing humanitarian relief – would be impossible without business aviation.