At the beginning of July the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) endorsed the newly appointed Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) deputy administrator Dan Elwell for reiterating the FAA’s commitment to the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) compliance deadline for all aircraft flying in designated airspace.
Speaking during the NextGen Advisory Committee meeting in late June, Elwell stated that “the ADS-B Out equipage mandate will not change. The December 31, 2019, date is firm.”
According to a GAMA statement, “air traffic control system modernization activities are accelerating worldwide and general aviation has been at the forefront of this transformation. From early adoption of GPS capability in the cockpit, to rapid equipage with Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) technologies to enable GPS based approaches at thousands of airports, through pioneering the development of ADS-B with the Capstone Program in Alaska, to the rotorcraft community’s enthusiastic embrace of ADS-B equipage in the Gulf of Mexico, general aviation has led the way.”
“We have confirmed across the full spectrum of general aviation associations that our industry strongly supports air traffic control modernization to include having the ADS-B Out mandate stand firm, as the FAA has consistently communicated, by December 31, 2019,” said GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce. “We look forward to working with the deputy administrator to facilitate accelerated equipage rates for fixed and rotor wing aircraft as the mandate deadline approaches.”