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.