The FAA wants you to know these 10 things about ADS-B:
1. ADS-B Out is Mandated, Not ADS-B In.
ADS-B Out is mandated, and only within certain airspace. Starting Jan. 1, 2020, you must be equipped with ADS-B Out to fly in airspace where a Mode C transponder is required today.
Owners can install an ADS-B Out system to meet the rule’s minimum requirements or they can also integrate with ADS-B In avionics and displays to reap the full benefits of ADS-B.
Since the advantages of ADS-B In are so extensive, the FAA believes many in the GA community will choose to invest without an ADS-B In mandate.
2. You are required to operate your ADS-B Out transmitter at all times, including while on the surface of the airport.
Why? ADS-B Out works by regularly broadcasting position, velocity, and identification information to ATC and other aircraft, to improve situational awareness at all times — on the ground and in the air.
3. Portable ADS-B Out avionics are not an approved option for ADS-B Out.
They use a suction-cup antenna to get a usable GPS signal, and must be in the right place or the signal suffers. This puts it in a prime spot to obstruct view, and the wiring potentially hampers controls and instruments.
Also, portables might easily transfer from aircraft to aircraft, but you have to input the N-number correctly. If you’re off by just one digit, then your flight plan ID won’t match up with the portable’s transmitted ID.
4. Uncertified Equipment? Check Your Airworthiness Certificate
You may install an uncertified transmitter on amateur-built aircraft and light-sport aircraft with experimental airworthiness certificates, if it meets the performance requirements of Technical Standard Order (TSO)-C166b or TSO-C154c.
For S-LSAs, ADS-B equipment must meet the performance requirements in TSO-C166b or TSO-C154c. The installation (i.e., alteration) must be performed in accordance with an applicable consensus standard and authorized by the manufacturer.
You cannot install uncertified equipment, including uncertified transmitters, on any aircraft with a standard airworthiness certificate.
Equipment that does not meet the performance requirements of an ADS-B TSO will not be permitted to operate in airspace requiring ADS-B after Jan. 1, 2020.
5. Keep your ADS-B installation instructions from the supplier, including the statement of compliance, in case you have any service problems.
6. You May Not Have To Buy a New Position Source Suitable for ADS-B.
Many avionics vendors offer built-in approved position sources, such as WAAS GPS receivers, and package them with ADS-B transmitters.
7. Make sure your ADS-B equipment and GPS equipment is an approved pairing.
Any GPS receiver, used as an ADS-B position source, must be an approved pairing with the ADS-B transmitter.
8. The airspace you fly reveals the type of equipment you need.
If you’re flying in Class A airspace, or operate outside the U.S. in airspace where ADS-B is required, you will need a 1090ES ADS-B Out transmitter.
Below Class A in the U.S., you have a choice between a 1090ES or a UAT transmitter.
For a detailed look at ADS-B airspace requirements, go to FAA.gov/NextGen/EquipADSB/Airspace/Requirements.
9. The ADS-B Out mandate applies to foreign operators.
Starting Jan. 1, 2020, all aircraft, including foreign-registered aircraft that operate in, or fly through the U.S., must be equipped with an ADS-B Out system that complies with the regulatory performance requirements.
10. Beat the rush, install ADS-B Out now.
Don’t wait! Avionics shops may become inundated with last minute appointments.
@ Tim. Sir, with all due respect, “ATS” is “Air Traffic Service”. See FAA’s website: https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ato/service_units/air_traffic_services/
As Glen Gilbert (the father of it all) aptly reminded me back in the ‘60s, it should have been called “Air Traffic Service” from the very start. He correctly reminded me that only Pilots and Operators actually “Control” aircraft. Whereas “air traffic separation service specialists” instead provide “separation services”, but only in designated airspace, where both operators and states (and ICAO now) have collectively agreed that an Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) is authorized to provide those separation services to aircraft, on behalf of the state, pilots, and aircraft operators (per the ICAO Convention of ’44). Air Traffic Separation Specialists do not “control” aircraft any more than perhaps a Safeway or Albertson grocery store checkout clerk should be called a “Food Controller”.
@gbigs and his (or her) substantially incorrect comment “…It is simple. If an aircraft is not equipped by 2020 it is NOT allowed to fly into controlled airspace. No one is exempt.” That is totally wrong. I’d suggest gbigs review any convenient nearby Sectional Chart. It is quite easy to note that even after 2020, ADS-B will NOT be required to operate in massive amounts of “Controlled Airspace” within the US (also see the AIM).
@ Bradley. Reference the comment “Boo hoo”… “just eqip”, …it makes me vary sad to see such callous insensitive treatment of the legitimate economic predicament of tens of thousands of GA pilots and aircraft owners and operators, who have entirely valid economic and operational concerns about this ill-advised, unnecessary, and poorly conceived FAA 91.225 rule. ADS-B could have been in implemented in a way that provided better benefits, to more users, with safer operations, for many more air vehicles, at vastly lower expense, …had it been done in a different way. Now, not only will those equipping with FAA’s overspecified and overly expensive version of ADS-B only get marginal benefits, but many of the presently advertised systems will essentially be “throwaway” in the future, while still NOT solving the fundamental GA airspace access, collision avoidance safety, and reduced ATS operating cost necessity, for what real NextGen will need to do, after FAA is [likely] reconfigured, and Nextgen (and ADS-A, ADS-B, and ADS-C are finally properly redesigned and applied).
@ Scott Christy. As one of the original advocates and developers of TCAS, and drafters of 121.356, I couldn’t agree with you more on the criticality of seeing other nearby traffic. BUT FAA’s version of ADS-B for “Pseudo radar” isn’t the best way to do that. There are far better and less expensive ways, that could have been used (and still could be used), by following in the footsteps of countries like Australia or Canada. While the general concept of ADS-B is good, FAA’s FAR91.225/91.227 is exactly the wrong solution (overspecified NIC and NAC, with the wrong parameters, making it impossible to ever solve Nextgen’s C-N-S riddle properly.
I and my family have been doing all this since the days of the OX-5, ..from gliders, K-Rs, and Cubs, to the latest wide bodies, including the latest “fast jets” dropping “serious stuff”, …and globally. It is entirely disheartening to see the lack of both insight an knowledge being exhibited in the GA and BizAv community these days, and in particular by their representative lobby organizations. My hope is that at least the readers of this publication will take the time to better understand these issues, both technically and operationally, as well as economically, so as to see the consequences, …before it is too late to save GA as we know it, for our children and grandchildren.
I’m with you Scott Christy!! I recently equipped my Experimental with a 1090ES transponder for $2300 after rebate. It was a breeze to install, replacing my KT76A… it reuses the altitude encoder and transponder antenna and comes with the GPS antenna, so 10′ of RG-400 cable and connectors was the only additional thing needed. I use a dual band Stratux for ADS-B In…. a whopping $85 shipped to my house and it works great, is powered by ships power… no batteries to manage and it is mounted behind the panel, not up in the sun on the glareshield. I now have a complete picture of traffic and weather on my tablet for cross country trips, which is well worth the money spent over the long haul for the improvement in safety alone to me. Every time I fly near or into Phoenix airspace, I am blown away by all the air traffic that I had no awareness of before equipping with ADS-B In and Out. I also have a nice new digital transponder that is much easier to use than twisting knobs on the old unit and my plane is international equipped for less than a 4% investment, not 20%. For folks that don’t go anywhere or don’t go near controlled airspace, don’t equip… no one will care until you go to sell your plane in the future.
I invested in a basic Garmin GDL-84 “IN” & “Out” ADS-B two years ago for my Maule since I wanted to be alive to enjoy flying. I have had at least eight very close calls with other aircraft in my 30+ years of flying. I always use ANC Approach, but small aircraft are only given traffic when their work load allows. While “Squawking & Talking” Approach has missed about 50% of my near death close calls. With the mountains, ocean, and military restricted air space around Anchorage almost all G.A. aircraft fly the same basic routes in and out of the area. Thus there is amble opportunity for a mid air. With my ADS-B “in” system my situational awareness is vastly improved. In our busy summer season I find myself altering either my heading or altitude to avoid a potential conflict with another aircraft. I now realize I have had many more close calls that I never saw before. I do not fixate on the screen and have had the automatic voice warning save me at least three times with only a couple of seconds to react. It seems all the negative spokesman have never flown in busy air traffic area with an ADS-B. My system saved me last fall when I was flying in northern Minnesota in very low to almost no air traffic. It only takes one unexpected meeting with another plane to end your flying days.
Another point I haven’t seen discussed is that the uncertified ADS-B units legal in Light Sport aircraft do not show up on the screens of certified units. I asked Garmin about this and they said they would not be displayed since they lack the refinement to be accurate. I hope this changes.
I fly in the big valley north of Anchorage where C-130 & C-17s practice flying low as if it were an MOA mixing with many civilian aircraft. As long as they have their transponders on they show up on my ADS-B “in” screen. Since each target displayed on my screen has s green line projecting from it showing where that aircraft will be in one minuted based on its speed, I am able to quickly pick out the 250 kt military aircraft from the slower G.A. ones in an instance.
So how much is your life worth and why not have another tool to avoid some of the air traffic out there. My ADS-B has many more helpful features beyond air traffic awareness, but if that was its only feature it would still be worth it. I have not heard of any ADS-B equipped pilot who said it isn’t worth it.
I think that ManyDecades is onto something here. If he is right about foreign airlines and the US military not being equipped, the entire system is compromised. Ever since the Federal Aviation Agency got morphed into the DOT as an Administration, FAA’s problem has always been its procurement policies. That and being ever more out of touch with what happens in a cockpit. Everything they touch turns out to be way more complicated than necessary – especially when it gets applied to general aviation in a ‘one size fits all’ mentality. Since I fly an Experimental, I may have a cheaper option, but anything I do to be compliant with ADS-B regulations will cost 10 to 20% of the value of my aircraft and it won’t provide much more safety or security than I get from a mode C transponder and Flight Following. Maybe it’s time to get back into motorcycling. (But then that’s what they want me to do.) Resist!
He is not right. No one is exempt. Not commercial. Not GA. Not the military. And those that are flying in Class E above 2500 feet have to have ADS-B out.
The 2500′ is AGL, not MSL, gbigs. This is for when you are flying in mountainous terrain where you need to go above 10,000′ MSL to clear the peaks. ADS-B is otherwise not required below 10,000′ in Class E airspace except in very few cases where you are close to some airports.
This was copioed from the FAA site.
ADS-B Out will be required in the following airspace:
Class A, B, and C airspace
Class E airspace areas at or above 10,000 ft MSL over the 48 states and DC, excluding airspace at and below 2,500 ft AGL
Airspace within 30 nautical miles (nm) at certain busy airports from the surface up to 10,000 feet MSL; airports listed in appendix D to part 91.
Above the ceiling and within the lateral boundaries of a Class B or Class C airspace area up to 10,000 feet MSL
Class E airspace over the Gulf of Mexico at and above 3,000 feet MSL within 12 nm of the coastline of the United States
gbigs… you are incorrect.
There is no requirement for aircraft lacking an electrical system to install ADS/B, nor any aircraft that will be operated outside of Class B, Class C, Class A, or other areas where ADS/B-OUT would be required.
Bottom line? An unknown, but possibly large number of aircraft will not have ADS/B after the 2020 deadline. And the corollary? Anyone who thinks ADS/B-OUT + IN will prevent midair collisions is smoking stuff that addles their brains (and is on the Federal list of prohibited drugs)..
What aircraft has no electrical system? Even gliders are putting in ADS-B out. And there is a requirement of have ADS-B in Class E from 10k to 18k. The only planes that will get away without it are crop dusters and junk that flies from home airfields.
Aircraft such as Cubs and Champs that were manufactured without a generator or starter have no electrical system, that’s what aircraft. One small point is that the current Mode C rules say an aircraft is exempt if it was not certified with an “engine driven electrical system”(Quotes mine). So my 1938 Cessna is exempt, as it came from the factory with a battery and starter, but with a wind driven generator in the wing. ADS-B rules only say an aircraft is exempt if it was not certified with an electoral system. Could have been merely an oversight, as how many aircraft today have only a wind driven generator, but there are a few of us around!
gbigs, if the aircraft does not have an engine driven generator/alternator, the FAA says it doesn’t have an electrical system.
I ask again, what the hell is “ATS”?
Since I never fly in class B or C airspace, I will not install ADS-B out. All of my flying is to class D or non-towered public airports. Most of the aircraft owners that I know are not equipping for the same reason.
We all do use ADS-B in for the traffic and weather displays.
Heck, most of us ‘old pilots’ still use VORs as backup navigation to our GPS .
JimH, if you do not have ADS-B out, then the ADS-B traffic you are receiving is only complete when you are near another ADS-B Out-equipped airplane. There are many planes in the sky that will not show up on your traffic app unless you have ADS-B out. This is the way the FAA designed it. So keep your eyes out for traffic, that screen traffic view you have is serioously incomplete.
You still need it 2500 feet AGL and above in Class E. You will see this airspace aroud Class D all the time. You need to keep your head out of both your cockpit and your….
Is there such a thing as a Chart or Map of the United States which can show me where I can Fly outside of Controlled Airspace ?? (this a real Question…not a humor shot) Thank You…..Eddie Hunter
The 11th thing one needs to know about FAA’s ADS-B is that there is not a prayer that airlines, DoD aircraft, foreign airlines, drones, or GA are going to be equipped to meet that 2020 FAA deadline.
Airlines already have relief until at least 2024. DoD will not only NOT meet the deadline, and they may NEVER comply, ever. No way is our financially pressed military going to waste money on things like FAA’s ill-advised overblown version of ADS-B for their Vipers, Eagles, Hornets, Raptors, and Lightnings, especially when they can’t even adequately maintain the current combat fleets or buy weapons. Same is true with foreign airlines. GA’s equipage rate is so far below that needed to come anywhere close to meeting FAA’s deadline, that compliance for GA is now hopeless. So it remains to be seen if ANY GA aircraft will be precluded from any US airspace in 2020 due to this seriously misguided and overspecified 91.225/91.227 poorly conceived rule.
Instead, FAA should allow ANY ADS-B system that Australia, Canada, or Europe allows, and suspend any reference to or even rescind 91.225/91.227. To think GA or any other airspace user group will be in full compliance by 2020, or face substantive airspace restrictions, is pure folly. It is equally or more likely at this point that by 2020, FAA itself will be broken up and reconfigured, with a separate ANSP split out.
Further, NextGen itself is heading straight for a $40B massive failure, and it too will likely also undergo a substantial redesign, as FAA itself has a high probability of being broken up, and reformulated from first principles, with a separate ANSP. FAA’s kluged, overspecified, dysfunctional concept for ADS-B, was foolish for trying to force use of ADS-B for ATS pseudo-radar (versus only using a simple ADS-B a useful air-air link for trajectory exchange). That FAA mistake was the root cause of FAA’s version driving ADS-B equipage costs to excessive levels, while destroying its inherent C-N-S utility. So now, not only are FAA and vendor cost estimates for ADS-B installations far too low for typical installations, but real costs are far above FAA’s estimates. Few aircraft have final installation costs even starting below about $5K, for even the most low end practical installations. Sensible installations that properly relate to existing already installed avionics and panels and antennas can easily range to five and even six figures, so as to appropriately be integrated into the aircraft, depending on the type of aircraft and other present avionics suites installed. Worst of all, those advertised low ball cost “minimalist” proposed ADS-B installation solutions can actually detract from needed real future NextGen capability (e.g., UAT). In some cases they may even preclude subsequent rational needed avionics equipage or be a throwaway. That’s because ADS-B alone, even if it ever got to 100% equipage, is but a small part of achieving future Nextgen useful capability for affordable, functional, efficient, C-N-S, for what inevitably is needed and will come (and at far lower cost than FAA’s present Rube Goldberg schema). Any practical needed C-N-S capable future GA avionics( even for LASa and drones) is going to need a balanced and blended C-N-S capability (including proper trajectory definition and data link) so as to actually be useful for future economic, affordable, and advantageous use, for both US and global airspace access. Note that Europe, Australia, and Canada’s ADS A- ADS-B, and ADS-C are NOT THE SAME AS the FAA’s screwed up mess of ADS-B. The Australians have the right idea, NOT even needing WAAS, with FAA overly specifying an entirely excessive NIC and NAC. If ADS-A, ADS-B, and ADS-C were properly defined and used, a good ADS-B could cost UNDER $500, and could even be portable, for gliders, Cubs, Stearmans, and even many drones, that legitimately need to fly in mixed airspace, and be seen by OTHER AIR VEHICLES (and not necessarily by FAA ATS).
So unless one is buying a new aircraft, or doing a major avionics or flight deck upgrade anyway, or is in a commercial bind with FAR91 Subpart F, or FAR135 operations, and can’t take a regulatory compliance risk trying to get a deviation or exemption (like the big airlines already have to 2024), then most sensible GA pilots and operators will likely wait to see what this year holds for FAA, before spending a dime on this FAA ADS-B mess. Remember that MLS totally collapsed within a few weeks of Administrator (AOA-1) Mr. Del Balzo’s departure from FAA. And President Trump already has signaled that the present FAA administrator is going to be replaced with a real pilot. And this foolish 2020 compliance deadline could administratively be delayed or rescinded by FAA with the stroke of a pen.
It is simple. If an aircraft is not equipped by 2020 it is NOT allowed to fly into controlled airspace. No one is exempt.
” If an aircraft is not equipped by 2020 it is NOT allowed to fly into controlled airspace. No one is exempt.” This is a false statement. The US military has already publicly said they will not be equipped by then with no complete date provided. A variety of US airlines have stated they will not be equipped equipped by then . You will not keep them out of controlled airspace!
We are beginning to see a rapid demise of the general aviation community. Each additional mandatory requirement for flying our airplanes is one more additional expense and complexity that makes flying less enjoyable.
Anyone operating off of a small airport in the eastern United States can observe how many pilots spend more time working on their airplanes and associating with each other than they spend in the air enjoying the flying of these airplanes and sharing the flights with younger persons.
We are a dying breed.
Those that resist or whine about equipping their planes for safety need to remember accepting the rules of flight when you got your license. You further agreed to the rules when you bought an aircraft. And when you fly in controlled airspace.
Flying is a privilege not a right. And frankly I think it a big problem radios are not required.
Boo hoo. If you can afford an aircraft, you can afford the one time cost. It’s really not that much money for a basic ADS-B out only solution. YOU made the choice to own and operate an aircraft. That ISN’T free. Man up! You’ve had years and years to plan for this. You still have years to be responsible owner and get it done.
Fascinating little cheerleaders. Adsb is a wet dream, not a solution, looking for a problem. Something for the gadget geeks who love a new toy to muck around with head down in an aircraft.
I fly a plane. I keep my eyes open, outside the cockpit. I talk to ATC.
And I never fly a simulator, or “practice” landings.
Adsb is nothing to me. But it is a great tracking tool for big brother. If I do submit, once again, I will keep my mode C xponder in the panel. And as soon as I get to airspace not required for adsb, it will be turned off.
Well put! Those cheerleaders strike me as the type that “DRIVE” around in Cirrus type airplanes. They love the prestige of owning an airplane but are afraid of flying – just get me there as quick as possible, I don’t what to look outside type’s. Maybe gbig and Bradley would be happier with one of those self flying drones, just program where you want to go, set back and wait for it to be over. Personally I prefer stick and rudder, head out of the cockpit flying, what they refer to as “crop dusters and junk that fly’s from home airports”. And thanks to adsb, you might as well have the FAA riding with you at all times since their computers will be watching every move you make AND mistakes you make and it doesn’t forget!
Cirrus haters who drive broken down cheap junk with a couple of round gauges and often not even a radio are a hazard to aviation. None of us want to share the sky with people who put their selfish testosterone-driven needs ahead of safety.
I guess I struck a nerve. I suppose we can guess what gbigs “fly’s”. An airplane with a built-in parachute! No fear of flying issue’s here! Most of us fly for the love of it. Then there’s the others. Perhaps gbigs will be the first one to be ratted out by he’s all knowing, all seeing adsb.
Good comment Mike S. Sadly, hopefully “sbigs” and “boo hoo” will each not become the victim someday, while flying into a bright sunset, and inadvertently running down an errant non-ADS equipped drone, or a Cub, or a glider,… in otherwise “controlled airspace”, ….or perhaps feel the sadness of being shamed by the pilot of a larger modern well equipped air transport jet, BizAv jet, or military aircraft, …each using credible avionics, with RNP, GLS, data link, and ADS-C, capability, but who exhibit a similar inappropriate callous attitude (as sbigs and boo hoo) toward GA, about sbigs slow, poorly equipped, obsolete Cirrus aircraft’s capability??, that can’t even yet do any of the real ATS C-N-S global operations that will be so critical for future affordable airspace operations and access, including for all of GA down to LSAs and tiny drones? We can only hope that perhaps education will help, … in time, …before its too late for saving GA.
You may “drive” your Cirrus, the rest of us “fly” our aircraft….even if they are junk in your opinion.