Avionics News February 2014 - 32

WAAS MY OPTIONS?

Continued from page 31

new. Segregated by frequency, I knew TIS communicated
air-to-air and that signals rebroadcast from ground
stations provided the positions of both frequencies. I
wasn't aware the traffic view centered the airplane in
a "hockey puck" of airspace 30 miles in diameter and
3,500 feet above and below.
Most of the gaps in the ADS-B In coverage map were
in the mountains and high plains. This agreed with the
experience of Chris Mortensen, who talked to me last fall
about his ADS-B-compliant amateur-built Lancair Super
ES.
At the time, he'd flown it to every one of the
contiguous United States except Louisiana, and the flight
information coverage was so good and reliable that he
canceled his XM Weather subscription. Flying out of
Manassas, Va., which is ensnared in the Washington,
D.C., airspace, he said the ADS-B traffic information
was an extra free set of eyes that spared him the fivefigure expense of an active traffic system.
But to take advantage of all these free inbound
goodies, you need a display. For FIS and TIS, the
RANGR family works with any GDL-90 compatible
multifunction display. TIS also works on the ARINC 429
standard. But what does a pilot do, I asked, if there's no
room on the panel? Simple, said Power, "Get the optional
Wi-Fi module and use an iPad" with either the WingX
Pro 7 or FreeFlight's ADS-B View apps.
Asking about the legality of this arrangement, Power
patiently explained that the ADS-B mandate addressed
outbound requirements. Inbound services are an optional
freebie the FAA built into the system because 978 MHz
had the bandwidth and it would "incentivize aircraft
owners to comply with the ADS-B Out mandate."
Sometime during the first quarter of 2014, FreeFlight
will receive certification of two new members of the
RANGR family for those who fly high and beyond
America's borders. Both are dual band (1090 and
978 MHz) boxes; one is a receiver and the other is a
transceiver. Concluding our conversation, Power said,
"ADS-B doesn't change the way you fly; it provides
additional capabilities and functionality."
Pursuing another source of certified GPS/WAAS
positions, I called Accord Technology. Located in Arizona,
it makes two remote-mount boxes, the NexNav MAX
and the ARINC FF-1203C, and the NexNav mini, a card
other OEMs incorporate in their products that require
certified satellite-based positions. Hal Adams, co-founder
and chief operating officer, said Accord was "mostly an
32

avionics news

february

2014

ALL OF THESE ADS-B OPTIONS SEEM TO BE
ARRIVING JUST IN TIME, BUT ONLY OWNERS
WILL DETERMINE IF THEIR AIRCRAFT WILL
BE READY TO FLY IN MANDATED AIRSPACE
ON JAN. 1, 2020. LIKE MOST THINGS IN
LIFE, PROCRASTINATORS WILL PAY A
PREMIUM OR THE UNHAPPY PRICE.
OEM-to-OEM entity," but he was working on a dealership
agreement with Peregrine Avionics in Denver.
An engineering company serving general aviation,
said Bill Mongeau, Peregrine's director of business
operations, the company did the STC work for the Trig
ADS-B 1090 ES transponders with the FreeFlight and
Accord GPS/WAAS position sources. Although he
couldn't talk specifically, he said Peregrine was working
on similar projects for other avionics OEMs.
"We're partnered with a few repair stations on the
STCs," Mongeau said, "and we're working now to
expand the reach of the approved model list for both the
FreeFlight and NexNav mini with the plug-and-play Trig
TT31 and smaller TT22." Its AML now "covers most of
the single-engine piston fleet."
Peregrine now offers the STC paperwork to avionics
repair stations who then buy and install the components,
Mongeau said, but in the first quarter of 2014, "we
should have a PMA (parts manufacturer approval) for
an installation kit that includes all of the necessary
components, paperwork and documents, from flight
manual supplements to instructions for continued
airworthiness. We're still working on the final price,
but the goal is to offer the single-engine weekend flyer
and flight schools an affordable four-figure ADS-B Out
installation."
All of these ADS-B options seem to be arriving just
in time, but only owners will determine if their aircraft
will be ready to fly in mandated airspace on Jan. 1,
2020. Like most things in life, procrastinators will pay
a premium or the unhappy price. Guesstimates of how
many aircraft that need an ADS-B upgrade run from
upper-five to mid-six figures. Divide those numbers
by the number of avionics shops, and owners will be
looking at some serious waiting lists. q

Avionics News February 2014

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