Special By Rob Stapleton for Aero-News Network

ADS-B Technologies, completed the first full air-to-ground installation of ADS-B a new aviation technology outside the United States at the Civil Aviation Flight University of China's GuangHan Airfield on November 1st.

"We did good," said Robert "Skip" Nelson, president of ADS-B Technologies LLC of Anchorage, AK. "The tremendous capability and cost effectiveness of this new technology simply amazed our Chinese Client."

Trials involving two of the University's Piper Seminole aircraft are being observed by officials of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the Chinese Air Traffic Management Bureau (ATMB) and aviation academics from around the nation.

ADS-B also called Capstone, an awkward acronym that stands for automatic dependent surveillance broadcast is shaping up to be the air traffic control system of the century.

"I expect that ADS-B will eventually replace radar as the air traffic control surveillance technology of choice, especially in the emerging and developing nations," added Nelson.
According to Nelson countries such as Ethiopia, the Caribbean, and even Japan are considering ADS-B systems. There is no doubt in my mind that ADS-B will be a half billion dollar industry by early in the next decade," said Nelson.

ADS-B is a satellite based real-time air traffic control and situational awareness system that uses moving map display in the cockpit with a transceiver (Uniform Access Transceiver) in the aircraft that steams data on a very high frequency band (978 MHz) to other equally equipped aircraft, and to ground based transceivers or GBTs.
These GBTs then send the information into the air traffic control system.

The same system has been tested and used commercially in Western and Southeast Alaska over the past five years. ADS-B (UAT) was developed  and perfected in the Federal Aviation Agency Alaska Region's Capstone Program, ADS-B technology is credited for reducing the commercial accident rate in Alaska by 43 percent since 2001, according the Federal Aviation Administration.

While Alaska is a good testing ground, and proved is worthiness by reducing accidents near Bethel Alaska, China also has challenges that can be met by ADS-B. GuangHan is a particularly challenging environment, with frequent fog, mountainous terrain and almost non-stop student training activity, according to Nelson. The aviation world woke up this past spring when officials from the Chinese Civil Aviation Flight University from the providence of Sichuan visited Alaska to review the Capstone program.

China, which previously has not allowed, or had general aviation, has said that it wants 1,000 general aviation aircraft flying in the country by 2010, according to Nelson.

After visiting Anchorage, Bethel and Russian Mission to review how the system works, they flew to Wichita, Kansas where they ordered 40 Cessna 172 aircraft that will complete a fleet of 150 aircraft for the flight school in Guanghan.

Cheng Bin Wang and Zi Jun Li with the university were impressed enough to order 150 ADS-B units. "We feel that this is the best technology for the money and will fit our purposes," said Cheng Bin Wang an engineer at the Chinese Civil Aviation University.

"I have been working on this for a year now," said Nelson. "The selling point of this system was that the Chinese government traffic controllers would know where the aircraft are at all times."

Filing a non-commercial flight plan in China was a two-week process in the past. The new installation will offer a two-fold benefit, safety and knowing aircraft location at all times.

"The equipment's performance exceeded even our most optimistic expectations and should have a tremendous positive effect on the overall safety profile of the University's flight training program," Nelson said.

The installation included Garmin GDL90 datalink transceivers in three Chinese aircraft and a 978MHz Ground Based Transceiver provided by the Sensis Corporation.

The University plans to install Garmin equipment in at least 150 additional aircraft and add five more ground stations during 2006.

FMI: www.ads-b.com