A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/857389
have yet to offer an ADS - B solution. Southwest Airlines and others are heavily dependent on Honeywell avionics. United Airlines has made significant progress in upgrading their B737 fleet , with 96 of 110 planned ADS - B installations complete. Several other airlines are als o showing increased fleet equipage. The military, as previously released in the press, expects to be unable to meet this deadline for several versions of the ir fighter and older aircraft. They are working with the Agency on a compromise that requires DOD radar availability at key sites to be identified. Many DOD a ir t raffic facilities do not even plan to track aircraft via ADS - B. GA equipage is a harder question and being carried as a h igh r isk by the SBS Program Office. Increased avionics availability and competition among manufacturers continues to bring the o verall cost for GA users down. In addition, the Agency has initiated another rebate program and it is showing some interest , but not as high as expected. The rebate program expires in September . The SBS PO very rough estimate of avionics installation capacity nationwid e is 50,000 airc raft per year. The rough estimate of all NAS aircraft that need to equip is 160,000. Users that wait too close to 2020 may find that the capacity for installatio n falls short of demand. Facilities may see these GA ADS - B operators flying more check flights as they attempt to validate their installations and claim the rebate. An issue not screened by automation systems but an important assumption for future ADS - B dependent applications is the br oadcast call sign of the user. ADS - B sends this information to automation systems for comp arison to the filed call sign. When a mismatch occurs a Call Sign Mismatch (CSMM) alert can be generated. The SBS Article 114 work group has recommended disabling these ac ross all automation platforms. The issue was highlighted in recent Equip 2020 meetings since ADS - B dependent applications (CAVS, Advanced Interval Management, etc . ) are de pendent on this functionality. Monthly track ing of CSMM conditions continues to trend upward. ADS - B IOCs have been completed at all En Route (ERAM and MEARTS) facilities. All ERAM sites have promoted ADS - B to the top of their sort cells. 102 of 155 Terminal sites have reached their ADS - B IOC and 9 9 are operating on Fusion. The majority of the remaining Terminal sites are ARTS 2E sites awaiting an upgra de to the ELITE (STARS) build. The Terminal ADS - B/Fusion tran s ition proceeds in this order: Kickoff meeting, ADS - B Flight Inspection, ADS - B IOC, F usion Operational Suitability Demonstration (OSD) , and Fusion Operations. The most recen t and upcoming Terminal events: • West Palm Beach (PBI) Fusion Transition 6/27/17 • Moline (MLI) ADS - B Fusion Kickoff 7/6/17 • Mobile (MOB) ADS - B Fusion Kickoff 7/21/17 • Dul uth (DLH) ADS - B Fusion Kickoff 7/25/17 • Bangor (BGR) ADS - B Fusion Kickoff 7/25/17 • Lexington (LEX) ADS - B Flight Inspection 8/1/17 • Abilene (ABI) ADS - B Fusion Kickoff 8/3/17 • Sioux City (SUX) ADS - B Fusion Kickoff 8/8/17 • Montgomery (MGM) ADS - B Flight Inspection 8/9/17