Avionics News April 2015 - 28

industry

NEXTGEN'S

NEXT
TECHNOLOGY
FOR PART 25 JETS, IT'S DATALINK, SATCOM AND FANS

S T O R Y

B Y

S C O T T

hen time and money play a critical role in a
complex challenge, looking beyond a deadline
that is drawing inexorably closer to what follows can be a distraction from the imminent situation. Facing the
Next Generation Air Transportation System's ADS-B mandate, this
is the reality for many operators of Part 25 business jets.
Like their Part 23 cousins, the transport category turbines must
be equipped with ADS-B Out by Jan. 1, 2020. Unlike their cousins, ADS-B solutions are determined, for the most part, by the
airframe and avionics manufacturers who initially met the stringent certification requirements for Part 25 cockpits, according to
David Loso, avionics sales manager at Jet Aviation St. Louis.
Business aviation has been waiting for the OEMs to define and
certify their ADS-B solutions. If they aren't already, a number of
them are close to certification.
"I expect things to pick up this year and next," Loso said. "But
there's always that component that will wait until the fall of 2019,
and then there will be a massive push, unless something changes."
That "something" might be a stand-alone WAAS/GPS engine that feeds the necessary position information to an ADS-B
1090 extended squitter transponder. On the plus side, it's a less
expensive ADS-B option than the OEM solutions. Collins released its ADS-B transponder last November, but it still needs
an STC to complete the solution, according to Gary Harpster,
Duncan Aviation's senior avionics sales representative, who
specializes in Part 25 aircraft. And Honeywell has a DO-260D
solution for its Primus radios, but only a few have stepped up to

avionics news

april

2015

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S P A N G L E R

it, so there are not a lot of STC options now available.
Using the Primus as an example, Harpster explained how meeting the ADS-B mandate could cost a Part 25 business jet operator
$200,000 to $250,000, a concern for airplanes with hull values ranging from $1 million to $3 million. The Primus 2 is a combination
box that includes the transponder and communication units. The
system needs an updated transponder to supply the ADS-B outputs.
When upgrading this unit to DO-260D standards, the operator also
must upgrade its radio management units. And the airplane needs
the more accurate WAAS/GPS position sources, if the airplane isn't
so equipped, and "all of the sudden, it's a pretty expensive solution."
The unknown on the stand-alone WAAS/GPS-ADS-B system,
said Harpster, was the FAA. "Would it be comfortable disabling
a unit's intended function" and replacing that capability with a
separate stand-alone unit? Apparently so. Gulfstream just certified
the Garmin solution on its G150 and G200, said Harpster. Another
challenge, he continued, is the system's teething pains. "The FAA
says 20 percent of all ADS-B installs are not done correctly; when
seen on ATC screens, airplanes are disappearing or jumping to parallel routes 3 to 5 miles away, and then jumping back."
The downside of the stand-alone ADS-B solution, added Loso, is
its WAAS/GPS engine serves only the transponder. That works for
ADS-B, but it does not open the door to LPV instrument approaches, which are supplanting the ILS at airports nationwide, and tighter
RNP tolerances, which open the door to optimized flight paths.
If ADS-B is NextGen Phase I, controller-pilot datalink communication is Phase II, Loso continued. It is a digital commu-

Avionics News April 2015

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