On Wednesday, February 11, 2015 at 7:00:42 AM UTC-8, wrote:
On Wednesday, February 11, 2015 at 12:39:47 AM UTC-6, jfitch wrote:
On Tuesday, February 10, 2015 at 8:17:50 PM UTC-8, Bill T wrote:
Most GPS units in gliders may be WAAS compliant, but with the previous language they were not approved to provide adsb out because they do not have the TSO Certification.
BillT

It appears in the new rules that it only has to meet the performance requirements. Furthermore the wording would suggest it is up to the installer to decide that it does until the FAA indicates otherwise? Which is reversed from TSO. Almost any GPS engine is WAAS compliant now. But I don't know what else is involved in meeting the 'performance requirement'. It seems like there is hope though, given that the spec was written while vacuum tubes were still in common use.

I'm sure Darryl will jump in at any moment and set me straight.

More on the subject this morning on the AVweb website:
http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news...e223533-1.html

I'm also eager to see what Darryl will make of this.

I think on one hand AV Web may overstates this, but on the other hand they are partially correct and mostly in the sense where this can get used as a shell game. e.g. manufacturers sometimes produce a TSO'ed device and a non-TSO'ed equivalent device and differentiate the two based on price even though they have little difference in actual manufacturing cost. And they sell the two devices to different markets, e.g. experimental vs. IFR aircraft (and where installers in some cases may erroneously believe they absolutely require to have a TSO'ed device when they may not).

In this case I don't expect this will actually significantly change any ADS-B Out costs in the USA not for some time. For example it is still a market where very few vendors can manufacturer any ADS-B Out device or GPS receiver that ... meets performance requirements of.. any TSO. Maybe not until vendors start producing an ADS-B Out devices with integrated GPS sources do I expect to see an ADS-B Out price drop. And prices will come down in general as 2020 approaches and people actually feel compelled to start installing anything (again gliders are exempt from most of the carriage requirements).. In which case I would not be surprised if manufacturers avoid formal TSOs and utilize the ...meets performance parts say at least for the internal GPS. And I would not be surprised if some vendors keep playing pricing shell games.