Via Oz Flying today - Carmody at Estimates on ADS-B
Quote:Shane Carmody fronts the Senate Estimates Committee yesterday. (still from parliament house feed)
Carmody holds the Company Line on ADS-B
18 October 2016
Acting Director of Aviation Safety Shane Carmody has reinforced the Civil Aviation Safety Authority's position on the February 2017 IFR mandate for Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) equipment.
Responding to a question posed by NXT senator Nick Xenophon in yesterday's Senate Estimates Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport, Carmody defended CASA's reluctance to push out the mandate until after the technology was adopted in the USA.
Senator Xenophon tabled AOPA's figures showing the decline of general aviation in Australia, then asked Carmody if, in that context, CASA had considered pushing out the mandate until ADS-B units became cheaper.
"There are many, many operators that over the last five years, individuals and organisations that made a commitment to fit ADS-B, and they fitted it on the basis that the mandate was in place and coming in," Carmody replied.
"There are a number of operators that would therefore not thank me, and would come back at us as a regulator and say 'you are making it less safe by deferring fitment when we've already made our investment in accordance with your direction.'
"So we've made very clear the directions for the mandate up to 2017, they've invested very significantly in many cases in this, so that's a second aspect.
Quote:"..there is nothing to suggest that the prices will decrease as fitment increases in the United States..."
"And the third aspect is that there is nothing to suggest that the prices will decrease as fitment increases in the United States and elsewhere, and in fact there might be more competition for equipment and the prices may not decrease, making it more difficult to get equipment closer to the time.
"[there is a] view from one group of people that it will get cheaper if we wait until afterwards. The challenge for us is that ADS-B is a safer technology, which indicates where every aircraft is. That's the safety case we're working towards."
Xenophon immediately asked a follow up question that was more direct.
"Is there any possibility given the alarming decline in numbers with respect to general aviation in this country, that there may be consideration on CASA's part to stretching out the date for implementation of ADS-B?", he asked.
"There are no plans at this stage to delay implementation," Carmody replied, "but I've only been in place a week. I'd like to look at possibilities, but at this stage there are none."
CASA has repeatedly refused to push the ADS-B mandate out, despite calls from the general aviation community to move the deadline out to 2021 to match New Zealand, 12 months after the technology becomes compulsory in IFR aircraft in the USA.
Read more at http://www.australianflying.com.au/lates...fVUkVk4.99
MTF...P2
