Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
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By TLRippon
#1862111
What an interesting comment about American aviators arriving at OSH with their various ADSB devices.
Since ADSB was mandated all sorts of ADSB outputting devices came to market to offer a solution and with the diversity comes the same sort of issues we have here.

On my mainly American owners group forum, there was a post this week from a member who had been flying in some piece of complicated airspace when his navigation light blew, thinking he had a minor lighting failure he carried on regardless, only to be reminded by ATC that his ADSB wasn't showing and he was ordered to leave the airspace. The device he was using was connected to his light circuit which had blown.
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By TLRippon
#1862142
To unpack

All those OSH arrivals who had working ADSB units were visible to the flight tracking app used, in a mandated environment, where many (not all) ATC units are ADSB equipped, in a country with a joined up ATC system where radar is prevalent, flight following is widely available and ADSB receiving weather etc, provides a benefit to the pilot. We have seen this sort of arrival picture for many years at OSH because OSH has RADAR.

What do we have. A regulator who needs to make a profit, an air traffic control system which is fragmented and privatized. A profit motive prevalent throughout the system. Patchy radar cover which vanishes in any area covered by the military at the weekends. Painfully slow uptake on ADSB installation at ATS units and no OFFICIAL ground station rebroadcasts with information benefiting the pilot.

It is no wonder private companies have risen to fill the gap and plots have taken it into their own hands to ensure they have the ability to augment the see and avoid.
ADSB mandates focus on ADSB - Out. In an environment with patchy coverage at ATC units and poor funding for services in the Lower Airspace, what actual safety benefit would mandating ADSB provide in the UK when ATC is not using it to augment traffic information being passed onto pilots. If we simply mandate it so as our private EC devices will see each other, whatever they are, we are not utilizing it correctly. Until we have ATC services like in the USA, there is little point in trying to copy half of their EC initiative.
Rob P, T67M, kanga and 2 others liked this