I think people with money to spare are gradually installing ADS-B; mostly certified stuff. They are doing it where they are upgrading anyway. But this is a very slow adoption rate.
The noncertified stuff is getting a lot of press coverage but reading between the lines I think it is mostly hot air. There is an evangelist for every different box and that always looks dodgy. Too much fragmentation means almost nobody will adopt, and in this case you need a large critical mass (say 50% or more) for it to be useful.
Ultimately what would drive it is regulation, and I simply don’t believe it will ever be mandated for VFR OCAS which is where most GA flies and where the biggest collision risk exists (the risk is still statistically very low, however). If you look at transponder use regulation, it has not happened there either, but it would have been far easier and more sensible to force mandatory Mode C because the equipment is so widespread, with the bonus of protecting CAT whose TCAS works simply on Mode C.
Also many people want to be invisible, for varying reasons (one thread is here and in addition to that there are significant “foreign reg” homebuilt communities who want to be below the radar) and those who want to be invisible on Mode C/S will definitely want to be invisible on ADS-B.
So my feeling is that nothing big will happen.
What might happen is like what happened with Mode S which is de facto mandatory if you want to fly anywhere in N Europe, unless you are happy to fly really low and do weird routings. So, Mode S adoption has very gradually grown.
Peter wrote:
I think people with money to spare are gradually installing ADS-B; mostly certified stuff. They are doing it where they are upgrading anyway. But this is a very slow adoption rate.
Ie people who are upgrading? Why say people with money to spare? Such a value laden term. Most people I know who are doing full avionics retrofits are adding ADS-B out.
To upgrade my GTX330 to ES (ADS-B out) would cost 1300€. This will be done at the next shop visit. My friend ordered a GTX345 (in/out) at the same time as his GTN750, to be installed in the spring. I think ADS-B will trickle down because of drones. Each airspace user will have his own traffic situation.
We’ve recently done an avionics upgrade on a C172 and could have ADS-B out, except that there is no STC for the particular combination of GPS and transponder, although both individually meet the requirements. So for the moment we have to do with uncertified ADS-B out which will show on Powerflarm, Flightradar24 etc. but not on certified TAS or TCAS equipment. It is extremely annoying. Of course it is an easy matter to change the transponder config to tell it that the position source is certified…
(The aircraft already had a proper mode S transponder before the upgrade — otherwise we would have made sure that the GPS-transponder combination was approved for ADS-B.)
except that there is no STC for the particular combination of GPS and transponder,
That is an extremely strict reading of the regs. Which avionics shop is offering that interpretation? I know one UK shop does interpret them thus but it is as I say extreme because it implies the only legal connections are those shown in the IM. It incidentally makes it illegal to install e.g. a DB9 connector
which brings out the data stream out of the panel mounted GPS (or whatever) – because no IM will show such a connector 
I think ADS-B will trickle down because of drones
Are they emitting ADS-B OUT? I can see they could very cheaply receive ADS-B and implement collision avoidance with it.
Peter wrote:
That is an extremely strict reading of the regs. Which avionics shop is offering that interpretation?
A Swedish shop — a very good one, btw. On the other hand the shop made sure that we knew we could change the “certified position source” setting in the transponder ourselves. Also, on our request they did install exactly the kind of data stream connection that you mentioned even though they clearly thought it was a grey area.
Airborne_Again wrote:
We’ve recently done an avionics upgrade on a C172 and could have ADS-B out, except that there is no STC for the particular combination of GPS and transponder, although both individually meet the requirements.
What are the make/models of the GPS and Transponder?
Well overflying Bristol I had a great demonstration of the potential practical relevance of ADS-B in Europe. Push for weather broadcast and it would be a game changer. This is the skydemon tower broadcast.
Ah. So it works. I tried it but while my transponder was seeing the tower, I didn’t get any data. Must be a setting issue in my GTX345.
Is that with a GDL?
denopa wrote:
Ah. So it works. I tried it but while my transponder was seeing the tower, I didn’t get any data. Must be a setting issue in my GTX345.
GDL39 received it well.
