Airservices Australia has cancelled the request for proposals (RFP) process for the purchase and installation of automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) avionics on general aviation aircraft as it reconsiders plans to extend its ADS-B programme below flight level 300 (30,000ft/9150m), writes Emma Kelly.
The air traffic services provider had issued the RFP to avionics manufacturers for the supply of 1,500 ADS-B units to equip the country’s general aviation fleet as part of plans to replace en-route radars with ADS-B technology in lower airspace from 2009.
Last year Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) started work on the process that would have mandated the programme.
The country has already committed to upper airspace ADS-B, which will see the technology used above flight level 300 from next year.
Chief executive Greg Russell told Airservices staff last week that introducing ADS-B in lower airspace is “a significantly more complex matter than upper-level airspace, and raises a number of operational and policy issues that require resolution before a decision to proceed can be made”.
No new date for possible implementation has been set, according to Airservices.
Universal access transceiver (UAT) ADS-B has been used in Africa for the first time, by an aircraft operated by ADS-B Technologies as part of a demonstration to officials from six African nations, the International Civil Aviation Organisation, US Federal Aviation Administration and World Bank. The Tanzanian Air Services Cessna 206, equipped with a Garmin GDL-90 daalink radio, was tracked by a UAT ground station during a 45min flight from Dar es Salaam.
Source: Flight International
