Avionics News April 2015 - 12

In this monthly column, Ric Peri of the AEA's Washington, D.C., office, informs members of the latest regulatory updates.

B Y

R I C

P E R I
A EA V I C E P R ES I D E N T O F G OV E R N M E N T & I N D U ST RY A F FA I RS

There you go again
D

o you remember the 1980 U.S. presidential debate
when Ronald Reagan challenged his political opponent, then-incumbent President Jimmy Carter,
with the now-infamous phrase, "There you go again?"
For many years, this phrase has grown in political
circles to address those who continually bring up certain
issues during debates, and in our case, testimonies.
I recently attended a round-table policy
discussion to examine the issues related to
modernizing and improving the efficiency
of the U.S. air traffic control system. It was
hosted by the U. S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Aviation. The industry
testimony was primarily what you would
expect with very few exceptions. But the one
thing that caught my attention was the offthe-cuff comments that stir the emotions of
the uneducated. There they go again!
"There you
I guess if you repeat it enough, then
someone might believe it to be true - "A $5,000 minimum
equipment cost for the ADS-B mandate; 200,000 aircraft,
none of which are worth the tires that support them; and
the ADS-B mandate is responsible for the (decades-old)
decline of general aviation pilots!"
Sorry guys, there you go again! I don't believe it, and I
seriously doubt you do either.
With a little research, we can find the Federal Aviation
Administration's 2012 General Aviation and Part 135
Activity Survey results that does a good job of breaking
12

avionics news

april

2015

down the general aviation fleet, as well as the avionics equipage of the fleet. In "their" defense, there are
200,000 transponder-equipped general aviation aircraft.
To be precise, there are 201,889 transponder-equipped
GA aircraft ranging from lighter than air (blimps) to
BBJs. The actual number for the piston GA fleet is
141,872. Of those aircraft, 14, 872
already are equipped with Mode S transponders.
The data also shows that 75 percent of
the piston GA fleet is used for personal
flight, while the remaining 25 percent
incorporate business, corporate and aerial
work. So the number "they" should be
using is only about half of what their
"public speak" refers to; that is, there are
approximately 106,404 personal-use piston
aircraft affected by the ADS-B Out rule.
Now don't get me wrong, I am as fisgo again!"
cally conservative as the next person. I
don't want to buy anything that doesn't provide me with
some benefit. And since the FAA has not seen fit to be
open about what the benefits are, or are not, to the GA end
user, it's hard to get excited about spending a few thousand dollars on something that offers access to the same
airspace we access today. But let's face it, ADS-B and the
requirement to buy modern surveillance equipment is our
contribution to the modernization of the air traffic management system. We did it when the communications system
was modernized some 20 years ago. We did it a decade ago

Avionics News April 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News April 2015