The Aircraft Electronics Association has entered into a partnership agreement with the NextGen GA Fund to accelerate the rollout of NextGen by providing access to quick, affordable financial incentives to aid aircraft owners.
The NextGen GA Fund will finance NextGen installations, including WAAS-capable GPS, ADS-B In, ADS-B Out, RNAV/RNP avionics, data communications, SWIM, flat-panel displays, antennas, electronic components, instrument panel modifications, and installation and certification costs.
The NextGen GA Fund is a public-private partnership formed between the U.S. Congress, the aerospace industry and the private-sector investment community.
Congress approved this program by granting federal loan guarantees found in Section 221 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2012.
The NextGen GA Fund will initially bring approximately $550 million as a capital base, eventually supporting some $1.3 billion in recurring financings to the general aviation sector during the next 10 years. The NextGen GA Fund will enable the retrofit of tens of thousands of general aviation aircraft.
Facilitated through the AEA and a special AEA web portal that will be available in the spring, member repair stations will be able to refer customers to the NextGen GA Fund as a financing alternative to help provide the necessary resources in accomplishing upgrades for more than 157,000 general aviation aircraft.
AEA repair station members attending the 57th annual AEA International Convention & Trade Show in Nashville, Tenn., will learn more about this partnership during a Lunch & Learn session scheduled for March 12 at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center. Attendees may pre-register for the convention online at AEA.net/convention.
“The NextGen GA Fund will help customers of AEA member repair shops move forward with the Jan. 1, 2020, ADS-B equipage mandate,” said Paula Derks, AEA president. “It also will bring substantial private-sector capital to help pilots and aircraft owners overcome financial challenges to completing these safety-enhancing installations.”
“Finding efficiencies and cost-effective ways to meet public needs has never been more important to Congress, taxpayers and aircraft owners,” said Michael Dyment, general partner with the NEXA General Partnership, manager of the NextGen GA Fund. “This also protects the FAA’s own $40 billion investment in NextGen infrastructure, for which aircraft equipage is essential. The debate is not about upgrading U.S. aircraft with NextGen; it’s how to inexpensively finance it. The NextGen GA Fund is about doing just that. An alternative to commercial bank financing alternatives, the NextGen GA Fund offers owners of general aviation aircraft the advantage to equip for NextGen without a large cash outlay or having to mortgage the aircraft in return.”
For more information: NEXACapital.com or visit booth No. 119 in the exhibit hall during the AEA International Convention & Trade Show, March 12-15, in Nashville, Tenn., at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center.
I don’t want a loan to put 20K worth of stuff into the panel of my 25K airplane. The steep cost of participation in ADS-B is actually reducing safety. An ADS-B install using a Garmin aviation handheld GPS would at least have airplanes showing up in the ADS-B system – more participation = increased safety.
Amen to the Demonstrated Ability approach. Much of the existing capability is there and should be utilized rather than hid behind the cloak of ‘but it was not certified’ so the accident / incident occurred. Even with all this “certified” stuff on our airliners, a Garmin 296 might have saved SWA from missing its airport.
If the mandatory ADSB update costs $30k or more, aviation will simply not be worth it. If that is the case then I’m thinking that on January of 2012 flying my plane to the junkyard and being done with it.
I don’t believe loaning money addresses the real underlying problem. Most of these aircraft have total values under $100,000. Economically, how many of these owners can or will spend $30,000 – $50,000 to install ADSB, certified GPS systems, glass panels, etc. The total cost to install a complete ADSB system needs to be driven down to the $10,000 range, or many of these aircraft will simply not have the equipment installed.
The underlying problem is the FAA certification process and resulting costs it adds to the equipment. This needs to be drastically reduced or totally scrapped.
How about instituting something like the demonstrated ability waiver, that the FAA already uses for color vision, to avionics. Then use this waiver to approve equipment for installation in certified Part 91 aircraft. Equipment from Dynon and GRT and others has proven itself in experimental aircraft, and in many respects outperforms most of the certified electronics available.
Hey!!! Common sense!!! You must not be a Democrat…..