Avionics News November 2013 - 49

But wait, isn't ADS-B supposed to correct this? Well,
ADS-B Out applications," Schwinn explained. "They
yes and no.
came up with a list of the top 10 ideas, and the FAA
"There have been significant advancements in techfunded the top six or seven for analysis. Most didn't apnology that simply weren't available when TAS/TCAS
ply to general aviation, but this one did. TSAA was No.
were developed, especially in the area of highly accurate
4 on the list.
SBAS (satellite-based augmentation system)/WAAS GPS
"One of our (Avidyne) board members is an MIT
positioning information and improvements in Mode S," he
professor, and he's also involved with the FAA. When he
added. "Because ADS-B provides latitude/longitude posiheard about the TSAA program, he said we should form a
tion information, along with altitude and velocity, air trafteam and go after it."
fic control can have much greater accuracy and provide
This team ultimately included representatives from MIT
tighter separation.
and Avidyne. "MIT said it would provide the intellectual
"At Avidyne, we've developed TAS-A systems that use
firepower to come up with the algorithm, and Avidyne
active interrogation (TAS) and also receive ADS-B
In. So they can now provide the best of both worlds
and easily see all of the traffic and provide alerts, reBased upon recent research and development work
gardless of whether the target aircraft are participating in ADS-B or whether you are in signal coverage
by a team that included Avidyne, the Massachusetts
area of an ADS-B ground station."
Institute of Technology and the Federal Aviation
While it's better than the TAS/TCAS technology,
ADS-B does have its drawbacks. "In order for ADSAdministration, this new, more pilot-friendly
B to be fully effective, it requires all aircraft to participate," Ryan said. "That is all aircraft must equip
approach to collision avoidance capabilities is called
with an ADS-B Out system and have a compatible/
TSAA, or traffic situation awareness application.
approved GPS position source."
Right now, this is not looking like the case. Since
its mandated implementation deadline isn't until
2020, the adoption of ADS-B Out is moving much slower
already had a traffic system to use as the basis for flight
than expected when the technology was introduced.
testing the idea," Schwinn said. "So that was pretty easy
"I think one of the big things the industry must be
for all of us to go along."
aware of is the FAA talks about 200,000 aircraft equipAnother thing favoring team Avidyne/MIT was the fact
ping with ADS-B," explained Dan Schwinn, president and
that Avidyne had, by far, the most experience in traffic
chief executive officer for Avidyne. "It's probably going
alerting and avoidance, and it was the only contender whose
to be more like 75,000. All those other people are just gobusiness was predominantly in general aviation aircraft.
ing to stay away from Class A, B and C airspace."
"The FAA's NextGen Implementation Plan states that
In fact, AOPA Pilot magazine recently published a
this is aimed at light GA, so why not do the work in these
feature on ADS-B, which showed through a recent poll
types of airplanes?" Schwinn asked. "We were flying the
of its membership that 37 percent feel the cost of ADS-B
cheapest airplanes you can fly - the Cirrus and Cessna
avionics is "excessive."
182. Anyone else would have used King Airs and CitaPerhaps they just don't know what they're actually paytions. We kept the cost down for the FAA."
ing for.
THE SYSTEM THAT CRIED WOLF
TSAA - MAKING ADS-B IMPLEMENTATION
The three-year program started with aircraft mid-air
SO MUCH MORE ATTRACTIVE
collision data collected for a paper written by Fabrice
Of course, like anything, one way to make the cost of
Kunzi, a graduate student at MIT under the direction of
ADS-B equipage and implementation more attractive is
professor R. John Hansman Jr. The data showed that the
to increase the immediate benefits to operators. And since
majority of mid-air collisions occur near airports and
one of the big draws to ADS-B is collision avoidance, the
areas where there is not only a lot of traffic, but also
FAA made the proactive decision to kick it up a notch.
extremely high instances of nuisance alerts from current
"The genesis of the development of TSAA was that
TAS/TCAS units.
ADS-B was just grinding its way along, and at some point
the FAA formed an RTCA committee to promote
Continued on following page
avionics news

november

2013

Avionics News November 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News November 2013