Avgroup log
Winter, 2010
Vol 7, Issue 1
Observations on Our Industry
Thoughts and Comentary
In This Issue
NextGen
ADS-B
LORAN is Dead
Worst Decade Ever
Quick Links
Greetings!
Pen & Ink logo

Where is global warming when we need it?  Yes I know the Greens say global warming/climate change is causing our mess.  But for the moment, color me Blue.  This winter everything seems to be frozen.  I am not talking just about the outside temperature.  Congress is frozen in gridlock.  The President has just announced a budget freeze.  The continuing resolution for reauthorizing the FAA budget continues yet again.  So far this year almost every day has seen temperatures in the teens here in Virginia, and we are just digging out of our third major snowfall.

 

Once the economy recovers and with it air travel, we will return to the old problem of delays and all the inconveniences and disruptions we saw only a few years ago.  In this issue I am going to be discussing a solution to this very serious problem.  Most of the articles below will be a summary of slightly longer postings of mine in Hangar Talk now, or soon to come.

 

There have been a few minor technical changes with Hangar Talk.  I started this blog in 2006 as a place to comment on events and changes in the general aviation industry.  I have been using Google's blogging technology but hosting Hanger Talk on my own server.  For technical reasons I now host Hangar Talk on Google's servers.  The only negative is that the URL for Hangar Talk has changed, but if you go to the old URL you will be redirected automatically to the new address.  I have added a subscription box to Hangar Talk.  If you want receive an email notice when new articles are posted, there is now a way to make this happen.

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Is NextGen Dead?
Maybe Not

CrosstrailIn the State of the Union address the President proposed a budget freeze, which I initially thought NextGen, the long overdue remaking of ATC, would be pushed even further into eternity.  However, just two weeks later the White House asked Congress for a $1.14 billion budget in Fiscal Year 2011 for NextGen, a 31-percent increase from the FY 2010 figure.  There will be a lot of debate on the budget so stay tuned.

 

In a perfect world every airplane could fly the best route and takeoff and land on time.  Fuel burns and carbon emission would be reduced.  No one disagrees on these points, but on funding NextGen there is little agreement.  Understandably the airlines and business aviation is not willing to pay for the expensive new equipment that is necessary to fly in a NextGen system until they are assured that NextGen will be in place on a date certain.  Too often the aviation community has made the investment and seen some new FAA driven technology fail to be developed or pushed far into the future.

 

Over ten years ago Canada "depoliticized" their ATC system, which was a part of Transport Canada, the equivalent of our Department of Transportation. Unshackled from their government except for safety regulation, the independent and not-for-profit NavCanada jumped far ahead of the United States in ATC service and technology - not quite NextGen, but they are moving rapidly in that direction.

 

Is it possible that the debate over the budget freeze could finally push the unshackling of the U.S. ATC system forward and create for our country what every other non-third world nation has?  An ATC system that pays for itself and operates as any high tech business should.

(I discuss this subject in slightly more detail in Hangar Talk, where I invite your comments.)

The ADS-B Dilemma
In and Out


CrosstrailADS-B is a key component of NextGen.  This is a proven technology that was first introduced in the U.S. in Alaska, the state with the highest per capita population of aircraft but with minimal radar coverage, often challenging weather, and mountainous terrain.  Australia was the first country with full, nationwide ADS-B coverage.  China created one of the largest and most successful ADS-B systems in the world.  However, partly due to the extensive radar coverage, implementation in the U.S. has been spotty.  United Parcel Service has been one of the few carriers to equip their aircraft with ADS-B.  At their hub airport in Louisville, Kentucky, where most of their operations are at night, UPS has seen an improvement in the efficiency of their aircraft operations at this hub.

 

There are three components to ADS-B:  A transmitting system in the aircraft that identifies the aircraft's position - ADS-B/Out; a receiver in the aircraft that receives the transmitted signal and displays the position of other aircraft - ADS-B/In; and a receiving subsystem for message reception and report assembly functions at the receiving destination, e.g. other airplanes and ground stations.  Here again Aircraft owners are reluctant to install the equipment, especially the relatively expensive ADS-B/In until they believe NextGen is a reality and the cost saving will be realized.
LORAN logo LORAN is Dead
So what is backing up GPS?

In January the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Coast Guard division announced the termination of all U.S. LORAN-C signals beginning Feb. 8, 2010.  There was no mention of what if anything would replace LORAN-C.  This flew in the face of a May 2009 report by an Independent Assessment Team that concluded that the cost to decommission the LORAN system would exceed the cost of deploying eLORAN.

 

Many experts feel that maintaining LORAN-C while transitioning to eLORAN" is very important for homeland security, marine safety and environmental protection.  eLORAN is the latest version of LORAN and has been adopted by the UK and many European countries.  eLORAN is operational in the UK.  Full implementation in Europe is expected be complete by 2022.

 

GPS is the backbone of NextGen and other navigation systems.  But just like the Internet, the other wonderful and ubiquitous technology invented in the late 20th century, GPS is subject to spam, or interference.  GPS can be jammed.  I searched on Google for "GPS jammers for sale" and got 28,700 hits.  The paid ad at the top of the first Google result page read, "Professional GPS & GSM Blocker Manufacturer from China Inquiry Now."   Last month Google threatened to close down their China domain as a protest for an attack on the Google servers from China.

 

I will be writing more about this subject in Hangar Talk.  Please check in there and leave your comments on this and any other subject.

Worst Decade Ever
There Are Strange Things Done...

"There are strange things done in the midnight sun" so starts Robert Service's tale of the Cremation of Sam McGee.  In Washington it happens at all hours.  This video is the best comment I have seen on the last decade.  Be sure not to miss the "Worst Decade Ever."
 

Thanks for reading,

Jim Haynes