Avionics News May 2014 - 15

As I moved from table to table at the farewell reception, visiting with members
from as near as St. Louis to as far away as Melbourne, Australia, and South
Africa, along with a few Canucks thrown in the middle for adventure,
I was reminded just how social the AEA really is.

(Parts 27/29) or operational rules (Parts 91, 135) that can
be shown to improve overall safety in rotorcraft.
Shaw also highlighted the policy on field approval
"reclassification." The FAA's field approval job aid for
HTAWS (helicopter terrain awareness and warning systems) says that these systems should be installed via a
supplemental type certificate. However, it is important to
note there is a "but" included in the text that allows an
experienced installation shop to ask for a "reclassification." In this case, the applicant shop requests a reclassification from their FSDO (Flight Standards District
Office), which then forwards the request to AFS-360 (not
the ACO), and then coordinates the request directly with
the Rotorcraft Directorate. In many cases, this reclassification can take place in as few as two days.
This reclassification process also is the process recently
announced by Garmin regarding the follow-on field approvals for its GNS series in VFR helicopters. If you (or your
FSDO) are unfamiliar with the reclassification process,
please contact the AEA for further information. We have
worked with the FAA headquarters as well as the Rotorcraft
Directorate to ensure we have this installation tool available.
And speaking of AFS-360, Tim Shaver again joined
us this year for the annual headquarters update. He highlighted two important issues: field approvals and ADS-B
installations. The major repair/alteration job aid has had
updates that include the approval of the streamlined process. The next phase is the incorporation of all the old
FSAW guidance as technical information papers. These
include all of the FSAWs contained in InFO 08047 (those
are the legacy avionics FSAWs).
Shaver also highlighted the challenges of ADS-B installations and the nearly 50 percent error rate that currently
exists. He offered some ADS-B system installation guidance: Use only GPS units produced under TSO (technical
standard order) authorization and recommended by the
ADS-B avionics manufacturer. While not required for
experimental aircraft yet, we should encourage the use of

approved ADS-B and position source equipment in these
aircraft; verify software load of all ADS-B system components are compatible/current after installation; verify
UAT transmits Mode 3A code correctly; verify the aircraft's assigned 24-bit ICAO (International Civil Aviation
Organization) address is configured correctly, especially on
dual-out equipped aircraft (1090ES & UAT); reference AC
20-165A for installation and system checks, and additional
installation guidance that will be published in the FAASTeam
Maintenance Hangar soon.
We continued the discussion of ADS-B on Saturday's
Rise and Shine with a presentation from the FAA's ADS-B
leadership team. This data-packed session was an eye opener for most of the shops in attendance.
Alex Rodriguez from AIR-130 noted that of the roughly
2,000 1090 megahertz ADS-B systems that have been
installed to date, slightly less than 800 have errors of some
kind. This is an unacceptable 40 percent error rate. But,
with the complications of the mix of certified, experimental
and light sport aircraft, and the FAA's inability to manage
these systems to date, I'm not sure industry holds the blame.
There are, however, some errors that we do have some
control over: non-compliant GPS or GPS not compatible
with ADS-B transmitter; improper software configurations;
Mode 3/A mismatch (transponder to UAT); improper configuration of 24-bit ICAO addresses (Modes S & UAT);
along with ADS-B and Mode C pressure altitude. This takes
a bit more effort on our part during the installation to check
and double check the installation.
For more information on ADS-B avionics maintenance
policy and guidance, contact James Marks via email at
james.marks@faa.gov.
To perform ADS-B avionics performance verification,
contact the FAA via email at 9-AWA-AFS-300-ADSBAvionicsCheck@faa.gov with all the relevant aircraft
information.
Continued on page 71
avionics news

may

2014

Avionics News May 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News May 2014