Avionics News October 2015 - 4

International
regulatory barriers
A

viation is a strange business.
twin-shielded wire, installed following good-old AC 43.13.
Whether you are talking airline operations or
We loaded the manufacturer's WAAS software into the
maintenance people like us, there is fierce competition between flight management system using the manufacturer's service
the different players. And yet, if a fellow avionics shop is in bulletin. We sent the transponders and GPS units back to the
need of a part to support one of their customers and we have it manufacturer in the U.S. for upgrade, in accordance with their
in stock, we'll often help.
SBs. When all the pieces were back on the aircraft, we tested
I recall the first avionics maintenance conthe system using a piece of U.S.-manufactured test
ference that I attended back in the 1980s.
equipment for conformance to DOP-260. We flight
There were some 400 delegates in attendance,
tested against the Australian Air Services air traffic
representing airlines from around the world,
system. Incidentally, this is the same system used
and about half that number of manufacturer
to guide the U.S.'s and other nations' carriers when
representatives. I still remember being amazed
they fly into our country.
at hearing and watching these commercial comBut it seems we're not good enough. If the
petitors sharing experiences and technical soluaircraft owner sells the aircraft to a buyer in
Michael Kus
tions in the interests of efficiency and safety.
the U.S., then the ADS-B mod will have to be
There's an amazing community and generosremoved. Then, in order to meet the Federal
ity of spirit in this great industry. We're all familiar with AN Aviation Administration's 2020 mandate, the aircraft will
hardware and ARINC standards for hardware and data - yet need to be upgraded to be ADS-B capable. This will be
another example of cooperation between multiple interna- repeated. The same boxes will have the same software and
tional aviation businesses.
mods loaded, and the same data buses will be run, using the
When it comes to generosity, one only has to think of the same materials and following the same standards. Finally,
huge amount of knowledge that the U.S. aviation industry has the system will probably be tested using the same test box
contributed, not to mention the early GPS constellation made and to the same test procedure. This seems almost as farcical
accessible to the world at no charge. Or we could mention the as the antics of the Keystone Kops!
sharing of knowledge by the British when they made available
In my previous article published in the May issue, I wrote
the lessons learned from their first ventures into jet-propelled about the cockpit being locked up and shutting out the avionpressurized aircraft. They laid a foundation for modern com- ics shops. Perhaps we also need to talk about the international
mercial transport, and it seems that every nation with an avia- regulatory barriers that inhibit our activities.
tion industry has contributed to the benefit of all.
We're truly an industry without borders.
However, a couple of years ago, we completed the world's
first ADS-B upgrade of a Honeywell-based installation on a
Hawker 800XP. In fact, it was one of the first ADS-B upgrades MICHAEL KUS
outside of the developmental work. The design work was car- Vice Chairman, AEA board of directors
ried out in Australia, as was the physical work. The aircraft Avionics 2000
changes consisted of running two data buses of M27500 Tefzel Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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