Don’t Just Upgrade to ADS-B Out: Confirm Your Compliance Continued from page 31 taxi operators and volunteer humanitarian flights that involve transporting hospital patients, veterans or pets. In the past, the use of these call signs help expedite and improve pilot-ATC communications, letting ATC effi- ciently know the type of mission being conducted, and, when warranted, allow for priority ATC handling. These call signs have useful benefits, and they can still be used. However, with ADS-B, the flight crew needs to make sure their ADS-B unit has a pilot programmable call sign fea- ture and that they change the ADS-B aircraft identification to match that call sign. If they do this, it would be wise to integrate the call sign update task into the regular preflight checklist. If the ADS-B unit does not allow name updates and changes, then the crew must revert to using the aircraft’s N-number instead of a specialty one. The crew can still use the remarks section of the flight plan and approved telepho- nies to advise ATC of a special mission, when applicable. “This is new technology and there will be a learning curve for some procedures,” Kenney said. “But it is impor- tant that we get CSMM issues down to a more manageable level so we can move forward with enabling a more com- plete suite of features and services for ADS-B and begin gathering more comprehensive operational feedback. The bottom line is, pilots need to know that, when an aircraft has ADS-B capability, the ADS-B call sign must match exactly with the flight plan call sign in all circumstances.” How to Check Your Compliance If your aircraft has been upgraded for ADS-B, then the FAA advises you to check to make sure it is working properly. You can do this with the FAA’s Public ADS-B Performance Report (PAPR) tool. To use the tool, operators input some basic information about their aircraft, including tail number, ADS-B equipment, make/model, and flight date. The FAA then sends the PAPR to the user’s provided email address, usually within 30 minutes. The PAPR can detect operational deficiencies with your ADS-B transmitter as well as verify if your system’s call sign is matched properly with the aircraft. The FAA cautions that operations close to ground level or near the fringes of ADS-B coverage might not yield accurate results. You can find this tool at the following link: https://adsbperformance.faa.gov/PAPRRequest.aspx Duncan Aviation experts have spoken with several operators who believe their aircraft is ADS-B compliant. Upon further research and discussion, however, they discover that the aircraft is not in compliance. Some operators have equipment that meets the earlier DO-260A standard for ADS-B. When to Check Compliance The FAA suggests operators run a PAPR report after conducting a few flights in rule airspace post ADS-B installation. And, that a new report be generated after a few flights in rule airspace if maintenance or repair work is conducted on the aircraft’s avionics systems. “This will let the operator know if everything is functioning properly,” Kenney explained. Peace of Mind The ADS-B Out mandate deadline is just two years from now. To provide peace of mind to your flight opera- tions, be sure to schedule your ADS-B installation now and remember to verify your compliance with the FAA. Lori Johnson has 24 years of experi- ence in aviation and is the Marketing Communications Manager for Duncan Aviation, where she leads the company’s internal advertising, branding, public- ity, web and social media activities. Aviation Business Journal | 3rd Quarter 2017 33
