FAA Eases ADS-B STC Requirement

On Thursday, May 19, 2016 at 3:19:44 AM UTC-7, Darryl Ramm wrote:
On Thursday, May 19, 2016 at 2:50:00 AM UTC-7, wrote:
"The installer does have to obtain permission from the original STC holder."

Does anyone else see that as a possible problem?

Unlikely, the FAA document provided is very clear.

Obtaining the original STC costs money so I wouldn't be surprised if the holder might be reticent about letting people use it for free.

Not likely an issue. In practice most of these ADS-B AML STCs were funded by the ADS-B manufactures and available free of charge for many GA type installs. Those vendors care about selling ADS-B hardware to a broader market not STC paperwork.

In practice an install shop would either use an STC or setup parameters published by the ADS-B hardware vendor for a ADS-B/GPS pairing. And vendors can now provide setup instructions that don't require AML STC paperwork.

As I understand it you need an STC for installing the unit in the aircraft and another STC to connect the ADS-B unit to the selected GPS source.

No. Any single ADS-B installation STC has always covered all that. The very core of any ADS-B AML STC is that it is the installation of ADS-B hardware with a paired specific GPS source.

The ADS-B in function of the PowerFlarm has already paid for itself in my glider though and I fly in Canada where ADS-B isn't even on track to become mandatory.

Not sure why you are worried about FAA approval issues then.

Thanks for the reply. So the cost of the STC work is "baked in" to the price of the equipment and freely available - good to know and it really should have occurred to me but I was incorrectly thinking along the lines of things like autogas STC's where you can't make use of the info for free.

I'm not personally worried about FAA approval because I won't be flying in the U.S. this year but I have flown there before, intend to in the future and have several flying friends who are trying to keep up with what's happening with the ADS-B mandate because they either fly Canadian registered gliders in the U.S. or live in the U.S. and fly U.S. registered gliders. One of my friends who flies in the U.S. a lot made the effort to install the higher powered Trig transponder just so the glider could meet the ADS-B mandate when it comes up. Presumably even with a Canadian registered glider if she was going to fly in the areas which will require ADS-B the ship would need that plus the appropriate GPS as I believe that the GPS output from the FLARM wouldn't meet the standards?

The last part of my post was really just to point out that although I'm currently flying in an area where ADS-B has relatively limited utility I still have found it to be worth having even if it's just the ADS-B in capability of the FLARM unit.