FAA Rule Correction Opens Door for Lower Cost ADS-B OK, We have been seeing the headlines in all the aviation rags today. So what does this mean to us folks that are building or flying Experimental Amateur Built aircraft?
>From the KitPlanes Article: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today >published a technical correction in the Federal Register that allows future >installations of ADS-B ?out? equipment to meet performance standards of the >appropriate Technical Standard Order (TSO) specifications without meeting the >complete TSO requirements. What this really means is that if the unit performs to TSO standards, it will not necessarily be required to have TSO certification for the unit. This opens the door for manufacturers to start producing inexpensive units similar to the SkyGuard TWX unit for sale to the Experimental market. As long as it performs to standards, it will be legal to use in an amateur built aircraft to meet the 2020 ADS-B rule without the need to the TAA TSO Stamp of approval. With today's correction to the FAA's 2020 rule, the cost of installing ADS-B out for E-AB aircraft just dropped from $5000 to less than $1000. The Skyguard web site says: "Plan to meet FAA 2020 ADS-B OUT requirement once TSO-C154c certification has been completed." So, at this time they make no claim to performance to TSO standards. However, I would expect that to change in the near future now that the FAA has cleared the way for them to be 2020 "legal" in E-AB aircraft without the need for TSO certification. This change of rule is consistent with other avionics commonly installed in E-AB aircraft that are typically labeled as meeting TSO standards, but don't actually have the TSO certification. This would include most of the Dynon avionics, MicroAir and X-Com radios, and many others not mentioned that are commonly used in E-AB aircraft, but can't be legally installed in Certificated aircraft do to the lack of TSO certification. I have been enjoying having the on screen traffic so much that I will likely upgrade my Experimental SuperCub from weather only to the full ADS-B in and out once the fallout from today's announcement has completed and the manufacturers get a chance to figure out how to work within the new rules. But the big thing to take away from this is that the price to equip with ADS-B for an E-AB aircraft just took a huge nose dive. -Jeff Scott Los Alamos, NM
