ADS-B compliance, You Can Get a Loan For That

Do your homework, but sure, you can get a loan to install ADS-B right now. Congress just passed a bill that will allow government guarantees on loans for money used in GA ADS-B upgrades. The scheme er plan is called "NextGen GA Fund". The idea is, if you don't have the cash now to upgrade your airplane, just borrow some, and you will be ADS-B compliant sooner rather than later.

Just for fun, I filled out the application. It took maybe 10 minutes, and today I got a note showing I was approved! I can get a loan for $10,000 to equip my Cozy with some new avionics. What would $10,000 cover? Well it wasn't a total magic number. I've been thinking of the MGL smart panels since I started building my airplane. The 8.5" iEFIS would be a wonderful thing to replace the 6 pack in my airplane.



Their web page says $6000 for the main package, including engine monitor, attitude heading reference and their encoder output box for the transponder. To make this ADS-B out compliant I still need either a UAT or a Mode-S transponder. I'll choose the UAT, since I got this cool display that will allow me to see traffic and weather. The NavWorx for experimentals box was about $700 a year ago, but today it is $1300, which isn't horrible still. That would leave me about $2500 still to go. The MGL panel has remote com and transponder capabilities, and MGL sells com radios and transponders that would connect to that as well, for about $2500 (well $1050 for a com, and $1550 for a transponder). Not bad for $10000.

That upgrade would make my plane pretty sweet. Go fast, ready for the future, and still only have to pay about $320/month.  None of this pricing includes the wiring that would have to go in, or the installation. The installation in my plane, since I am the manufacturer, can be done by me. I can charge myself 50cents an hour if I want. I don't want to be all polly-anna but I could do a lot with ten grand.

If you have a certified plane, I am guessing something similar would be about $30,000, since installation wouldn't be free, and certified equipment would need to be purchased.

(this is where I want to put in a record scratch sound)

Wait a minute, 300 a month for 36 months, that is $10,800. I don't need to put in these avionics yet, I got almost 4 years to go. What if I put away 300 a month for 3 years and wait to see what is available then. I should also look into what I can get a load from my bank for. Probably at better or equal terms than these folks are offering.

There is nothing wrong with waiting 3 years. If it doesn't take a whole year to install all this, my plane will still be compliant in 2020. Avionics are getting better, and cheaper every year. Surely something will break loose and this whole mess will be affordable.

(If you don't know much about paying for airplanes, some airplanes can be bought for under $20,000. Putting $10,000 into an instrument panel for a $20,000 airplane won't increase he value of the aircraft much, certainly not $10K. It is a bad investment. My airplane cost a little more than $20K to build maybe twice that much, even still $10K in the panel won't help the value too much. If I did this it would be for my pleasure. Affordable is still relative, but airplane owners are not all rich people.)

I am sure there are some bankers and others who think this is needed. To me it is some PAC wasting congresses time. The could be working on PBOR2 or funding the FAA or something useful. More and more the congress get the prize for doing something, but not anything useful. (sorry about going political).

ADS-B in and out for under $1000

The FAA made a reasonable choice. Well, it was forced upon them, because of their own rules. The ADS-B specs were written such that certified ADS-B solutions must be installed using a supplemental type certificate (STC) process. There are some aircraft that aren't "type certificated", including experimental aircraft, that could be supplemented. The FAA has changed the rules to allow aircraft without type certificates to have avionics installed that are not certified to the technical standards order (TSO). Most nav/com radios in GA aircraft do not have TSO'd radios, but the FAA wrote the ADS-B rule to mandate TSO'd ADS-B equipment. TSO'd equipment is required on aircraft used for commercial operations.

To obtain the TSO, requires certification from the FAA. As things are, there are tests to be taken and paperwork to file, and the process takes time, and money to complete. That money ends up raising the price of the equipment beyond the bill of material (BOM) costs. In the end, you and I pay for this certification. The ADS-B equipment manufacturers were including this in the price we paid for the UAT or transponder.

Now without the need for the TSO certification, the equipment manufacturers should be able to sell equipment for a little less. One manufacturer, so far, has taken this to an extreme. NavWorx will sell a UAT for $699 for a limited time for experimental aircraft. This device is ADS-B UAT in and out, with built in GPS.   The data can be connected RS-232, Bluetooth or WiFi to a display including mode manufacturers MFDs and Tablets.

It will need a couple antennas, one for the UAT and the other for the GPS. There will need some "baro" aiding, to allow accurate altitude reporting. The baro input can come from the transponder encoder if it includes RS-232 output, or can come from a specific NavWorx TransMonSPE device for another $169.

Hopefully this is the start of the flood, but in the mean time, this is certainly welcome news. I knew it was possible, and hopefully NavWorx will keep going offering even better devices, at reasonable prices.

You gonna buy one? I am pretty sure I will.

Another SDR, and this one is interesting...

What have I been saying, ADS/B in and out for under $1000 is possible. There is a guy with an SDR transceiver that will work everywhere 100MHz to 1000Mhz! The Whitebox SDR is being developed and has a smaller following. This SDR has it's own processor on it and can do all the modulation/demodulation on board. The bill of materials for the board is about $300, making retail under $1000 quite possible.

The name is Whitebox as opposed to blackbox because everything about it is known. The more you know the more you can do with it! The source code, schematics and board layouts are on github. Unless you have looked into SDR programming, there may not be much useful there. If you have looked at gnu radio or any of the RTL-SDR programs, this should look quite similar.

The project hasn't changed status in a little over a year, although the author has done several recent interviews on some ham radio podcasts. There was quite a bit of discussion around the 2013 Dayton Hamvention. I believe this device is pretty solid, but I don't have one yet.

Remember that UAT frequency is 978MHz, toward the top end of the limit if this device. It should be no trouble to write the code for a UAT device. The USB out from this board could easily be connected to an external computer, including a tablet.

It will take some software development to finish this project, but with a little bit of work, suddenly there would be a UAT available for under $1000.

Flying Magazine recently published an article about a portable ADS/B in/out device that is under $1500. It may not be under $1000, but it has a chance to be a popular device. The SkyGuart TWX is a portable device that listens on both 1090 and 978MHz and transmits on the 978MHz. It also has GPS receiver and WiFi for connecting to a tablet.

Are we getting close yet?

Android ADS/B in for $20 available NOW!

It is finally available! I predicted it about a year ago, when I first ordered my tablet, and thought about writing it myself, and asked for help. I am glad there are more ambitious people out there, because they get it done. My Android development skills aren't there yet either. I am working on an app that will use maps, but haven't got to that part yet.

The app is $1.50 in the PlayStore, called ADS-B on USB SDR RTL (beta)  it shows up in apps called "USB ADSB..." on the tablet. The USB dongles are really only about $15-20 US, plus shipping. You will probably need an OTG cable or adapter for a phone or tablet. (The OTG cable allows attaching USB client devices like mice and keyboards to a phone or tablet). Really the cost may approach $50 plus a tablet.

The app shows promise, and really looks nice. It starts the map centered on Lakeland Florida, so it needs to be adjusted to where you are. The maps can be sectional, WAC, IFR, and street maps, and can be selected from a menu. The pinch to zoom works, but the menu allows zooming, along with buttons in the upper corners.

When the app comes up, it displays all the available devices, selecting the available device starts the app. The top part shows the map, the bottom part shows a list of the aircraft that the software has heard recently (can be adjusted in startup menu, defaults to 60 seconds).

It appears to be listening for 1090MHz Mode S with Extended Squitter (ES) transponders. 1090ES is the world wide standard. GA in the US will probably focus mostly on the 978MHz UAT devices, since there is more bandwidth available to those devices. See UAT or 1090ES in my other blog).

The developer says it will have weather eventually. Weather alone would make this app worth while, but the aircraft positions is a huge benefit. "Mounting" a tablet in an aircraft isn't hard, and there are a few adapters to make it easy. 

This doesn't completely compete with the Garmin GDL-39, and their Pilot app, but it will give you the chance to see what is possible, and the benefits to having ADS/B service.

I had trouble using it. The SDR dongle is very sensitive to the antenna chosen. I found a link to a site were there are extensive design and testing of antennas especially for ADS-B reception:

http://forum.planefinder.net/threads/ads-b-diy-antenna.23

I chose the simple 1/4 wave dipole and was able to get some reception. I didn't want a large antenna, nor an amplified one. I want to be able to use this portable in rental aircraft and such. It did seem if I got the SDR farther away from the tablet, it worked better. I used a USB extender to do that.

The battery life doesn't seem to be negatively affected running the SDR dongle, the screen still eats most of the battery. Someone suggested a split OTG cable, so it could be connected to power while running the SDR dongle. That is a great idea.

I can't say this will save a life, or replace TCAS for alerting, but it could help someone get the big picture when ATC calls out traffic.

If everyone only does ADS-B in, it looses some of the benefit. The future will require us to use ADS-B out as well, then everyone should be on the same level.

I Ordered a New Tablet.

I wasted a bunch of time shopping on eBay last week. I finally decided it is time to get a mainstream tablet. I mostly want it for work, but think it would be good for doing ADS-B in on the cheap!

I ordered a new Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. I didn't get the note, it cost too much. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is still a dual code 1.6GHz device, and ought to be enough power for now, and is less than a year old. It has everything I want; bluetooth, GPS, WiFI and a big screen. I think I'll have to buy an OTG adapter since it uses a proprietary USB connector (just like the iPad).

How can I do ADS-B for under $100 with this? Well, the SDR folks have been working overtime. One guy at least, Martin. He has the RTL2832u dongle talking to the Android devices. It was only a matter of time, since both the Android stuff and the rtl2832 SDR software are all open sourced. It doesn't do ADS-B decoding out of the box, but what the heck, that is only a little more software.

The FAA while  threatening to charge for the charts, still gives them away. It doesn't really matter, for me using old charts on this, since it will probably be just a toy for now. If I were to ever fly with this relying on the tablet for navigation, then I would want the most current charts. If needed, I would pay for them.

I think I could do the development of the ADS-B decoding, and try to use someones mapping software to get the data to display on the screen. If nothing else, decode the TIS-B and FIS-B data.

Yea, I know Garmin and FreeFlight and everyone seems to think anything under $5000 is the a cheap price for ADS-B, but here I am suggesting a $300 tablet, and a $20 receiver it all I need for ADS-B (plus some cables, and software). Imagine if this would run on a $79 Android tablet, then the whole mess is under $100!. That ought to shock those other guys. Sure they are doing it the hard way, separate receivers and all the work to get "certified" ADS-B receivers, but trust me, you don't need to have a receiver "certified".

Since it is GA in the USA, I am convinced the UAT frequencies are the right ones. The FAA will put the same data out on both the 1090MHz ES, and the 974MHz
UAT frequencies. 


Can we make it happen? Want to help? Lets do it!!

Let me know if I forgot something...