“Where is he?” 

A few months ago, I was in the right seat of my flying club’s Cessna 182 Skylane conducting an instrument proficiency check for a fellow member of our flying club. The pilot was under the hood, of course, and she was focused on entering the course reversal procedure turn at an airport we often use for instrument approach procedure work. Since the airport is convenient to our home base, and because it has a number of different approaches on offer, it’s a popular location for the sort of work we were doing. 

The Back Story

As you might remember from the Pilot Report (PIREP) I offered in our first ADS-B focused issue of FAA Safety Briefing (March/April 2017), there was never a question of whether our club would install ADS-B Out equipment. Our home base loca­tion inside the Washington, D.C. Tri-Area Class B and Special Flight Rules Area made that a true go/ no-go decision. The issues we debated were the same “what” and “when” that our fellow owners face. To recap, we initially took a watch-and-wait approach, figur­ing — correctly — that manufacturers would provide more options at lower prices as the 2020 equipage deadline drew closer. That strategy also enabled us to save money toward the eventual ADS-B acquisition and installation costs. 

We concluded pretty quickly that the certified ADS-B Out and In boxes were beyond our budget. Even if finances had allowed, we surmised that the ever-quickening pace of new technology might render a “full Monty” device obsolete almost as soon as it could be installed. Consequently, we narrowed the scope of our search to certified ADS-B Out solu­tions and decided to use a bring-your-own-device approach to ADS-B In. 

An aging equipment issue helped us further narrow the field. In our uniquely complex home airspace, a properly functioning transponder really matters. Since our balky existing transponder was in need of replacement, we confined our options to transponder-based ADS-B solutions. We eventually selected a device that would provide certified ADS-B Out and enable non-certified ADS-B In weather and traffic data for everyone in the club with a tablet and a ForeFlight subscription. 

So we can boast (pilots do that, right?) that we made the move to ADS-B relatively early (okay, six years from the date of the rule, but more than three full years before the deadline). 

It’s A Beehive!

The certified part of our ADS-B solution makes our airplane compliant with the ADS-B Out rule, and we are certainly relieved to have a reliable tran­sponder. However, the addition of the non-certified ADS-B In data, especially traffic, quickly became “the” benefit. We always knew there were a lot of air­planes in the sky around our home base, but ADS-B In traffic data has provided jaw-dropping confirma­tion of that fact. 

On the day of the instrument approach prac­tice I described at the beginning, the ADS-B In data showed my colleague and me that we had company. The tag on the tablet target told us it was another Cessna, and we even had the tail number. But never once did we hear the pilot make any posi­tions reports or other transmissions. Even with both of us searching the sky where ADS-B In said our “bogey” should be, never once did we see it with our own eyes. 

To make matters more challenging, the other pilot appeared oblivious to our presence notwith­standing the radio calls we made. As we weren’t keen on either unbriefed formation or (worse) swapping paint, my friend and I decided that discretion was the better part of valor. We broke off the approach, flew to a safe distance, and rejoined after our all-but-invisible friend had landed. 

I don’t know what might have actually hap­pened that day without ADS-B, but both of us real­ized what could have happened. Now more than ever, I wonder how we ever got along without the assistance of ADS-B information. Once you have it, I think you will agree.  (FAA Safety Briefing– JanFeb 2019)