ADS-B Vendors Waiting For Rule
Garmin hosted a session at its seminar tent that was billed as an update to ADS-B. But the truth seems to be there’s not much new to report. A Q&A session after the presentation got down to the more nitty-gritty: ADS-B will be required by 2020 but the details of what compliant equipment will be is not yet certain. Garmin spokesman Gary Keller said that the stumbling block is the lack of Notice for Proposed Rulemaking on the final standards. “For us to commit to building equipment without that … is a risky proposition,” he said. Garmin’s GDL90 is capable of ADS-B right now, but it costs around $7000. Even at that price, Garmin has sold about 1,800 of them but 500 of those were in China. Keller says a lower-priced ADS-B system is certain – once they know what standard is set. Meanwhile, a Texas company is offering an ADS-B add-on that works with Garmin and several other displays. NavWorx of Rowlett, Texas, has built a portable ADS-B system that can display on a Garmin GPSMAP 496 or several other cockpit displays.
Garmin hosted a session at its seminar tent that was billed as an update to ADS-B. But the truth seems to be there's not much new to report. A Q&A session after the presentation got down to the more nitty-gritty: ADS-B will be required by 2020 but the details of what compliant equipment will be is not yet certain. Garmin spokesman Gary Keller said that the stumbling block is the lack of Notice for Proposed Rulemaking on the final standards. "For us to commit to building equipment without that … is a risky proposition," he said. Garmin's GDL90 is capable of ADS-B right now, but it costs around $7000. Even at that price, Garmin has sold about 1,800 of them but 500 of those were in China. Keller says a lower-priced ADS-B system is certain - once they know what standard is set. Meanwhile, a Texas company is offering an ADS-B add-on that works with Garmin and several other displays. NavWorx of Rowlett, Texas, has built a portable ADS-B system that can display on a Garmin GPSMAP 496 or several other cockpit displays.
Bill Moffitt, V.P. of Engineering for NavWorx, showed us a unit that receives the ADS-B signal, but doesn't transmit. This lets you see weather and traffic information, but other traffic can't see you. NavWorx will also offer one that both receives and transmits. The system will be available soon for LSAs and experimentals. Certified installations should be available by next year. The kicker is the cost: The receive-only system is $1495 and the bidirectional is $2500.
