EMMA KELLY / PERTH
Successful trial could lead to national implementation, says air traffic services provider
Airservices Australia has teamed with Australian manufacturer Microair Avionics to design and develop low-cost automatic dependent surveillance - broadcast (ADS-B) avionics for general aviation.
The move is part of the air traffic service provider's ongoing demonstration of ADS-B technology in the Burnett Basin region of Queensland, which Airservices Australia hopes will lead to national ADS-B implementation.
GA equipage is a crucial part of Airservices' ADS-B plans. "If we don't get ADS-B to work for GA, [national deployment] won't work at all," says project manager Greg Dunstone.
Microair will use its T2000SFL Mode A/C transponder as the platform for its ADS-B kit. Microair has been tasked with producing an ADS-B transponder, meeting the small size and low price requirements of the GA and sports aircraft markets. The system will transmit a reply to conventional radar interrogations, in addition to broadcasting ADS-B position and altitude information via digital datalink.
ADS-B is expected to provide operational and safety benefits compared with the procedural separation services that are provided in remote parts of the country. The service provider has called for responses to a proposal to replace the national radar network with 20 ADS-B ground stations from 2005, which would cost around A$13 million ($8.5 million) - a tenth of the cost of replacing the ageing radar network, says Dunstone. While everybody sees the potential, the issues of who should pay for it, how much and when remain to be resolved.
"Key parts of widescale deployment rest with GA," says Dunstone. As part of its efforts to ensure the GA community is part of ADS-B implementation, Airservices is considering innovative finance schemes, including subsidising mandatory equipment, and after a set period of leasing the equipment the GA operator would own it.
Airservices launched its ADS-B programme in January. Two Royal Flying Doctor Service Beech King Airs, an Energex Eurocopter/Kawasaki BK117 community rescue helicopter and two Sunstate Airlines Link Bombardier Dash 8s are broadcasting position reports by ADS-B using Honeywell-Bendix-King's Mode S transponder (Flight International, 11-17 February). Another three Dash 8s and more GA aircraft are to join the programme shortly.
The Asia-Pacific region is closely following Australia's ADS-B programme after air traffic management service providers and operators decided earlier this year to implement ADS-B on major traffic flows across the region from 2006.
Source: Flight International
