Hello, I'm Brandon Martini, a commercial pilot and flight instructor.
I'm Carson Vasquez.
I'm a private pilot.
And you're listening to the Aviation Mentors podcast sponsored by Stratis Financial.
So buckle up because the aviation mentors are taking off.
Welcome back everybody to another great and fantastic episode of the aviation mentors
podcast.
Today we're going to be talking about one of the newer aspects of aviation, something
that's actually part of the FAA's next generation air transportation system or next gen.
That's the automatic dependent surveillance broadcaster, ADS-B.
ADS-B is a surveillance technology that allows aircraft to determine their position by satellite
navigation and periodically broadcast it, enabling it to be tracked.
There's a couple different versions of ADS-B, ADS-B in and ADS-B out.
We're going to kind of touch base on ADS-B out today.
But I'm excited to talk about this topic because it's something that I always kind of question
my students whenever we're doing the end of course or things like that.
So I know I really questioned Carson on it.
And this has only been a requirement since 2020.
I really thought when COVID hit, they were going to move this to be honest.
Well first off, let's talk about the purpose behind ADS-B's development.
So the development of this system was pretty much driven by the need to enhance surveillance
of aircraft.
The more airplanes are in the sky, the more we need to watch them and keep a close eye.
And particularly in areas where traditional radar coverage is either weak or non-existent.
And these traditional radar systems, which were used for air traffic control, do have
a few limitations that ADS-B was designed to address.
So a big one was geographic limitations.
The ground coverage, the ground-based radar systems have a limited range and they struggle
to provide coverage in either mountainous regions or over the ocean.
And ADS-B on the other hand relies on GPS signals and can provide coverage pretty much
anywhere as GPS as well as a ground-based ADS-B receiver.
And the exception of this rule, which Brandon and I actually learned through some good research,
was that there is space-based ADS-B for oceanic flights.
So that's a pretty cool one, right Brandon?
Yeah, absolutely.
I didn't even realize they had a space-based ADS-B for that purpose because I never fly
over the ocean.
Like not far, like flying over the ocean to Catalina, that might be one thing, but not
doing a transatlantic or trans-pacific flight to Asia or something like that's not something
I've ever done.
So it was just new information for me, but it's pretty cool to learn.
Yeah, it's not a big concern for us.
It's not something in our world of aviation.
That's a totally separate world.
What's always good is always learning something.
I mean, we talk about learning something all the time, and it's okay to not know something,
by the way, even if you're a high-time pilot.
I mean, just ask.
Because like I've said before, it's only going to be a stupid question one time, and then
guess what?
You're no longer stupid.
You're smart.
You now have the information, which is kind of neat.
Yeah, that was game-changing advice, and Brandon gave that to me.
So where are we at?
The real big purpose of ADS-B, it's really to address the radar information limitations.
So radar won't give you a ton of information.
Conventional radar only provides an aircraft's position and altitude.
ADS-B, though, can provide the aircraft's identity, velocity.
It even says if it's climbing or descending or in straight-level flight.
So that's the why behind ADS-B.
Brandon, I'm sure you can go a little bit more into as a CFI about the how behind ADS-B.
Yeah, absolutely.
Sure, let's go into how ADS-B works.
The first component of ADS-B is determining the aircraft's position.
For this, the aircraft uses on-board GPS, or Global Positioning System, if you've had
your head under a rock for the past, I don't know, 40 years.
But they use GPS.
These systems are extremely accurate and can provide precise latitude, longitude, altitude
of the aircraft, as well as other information.
Once an aircraft's position is determined, the ADS-B transponder, it's kind of known
as an ADS-B transponder, but the ADS-B out system broadcasts this information along with
other data, including the aircraft's identity, its tail number or call sign, which is actually
programmed into whatever system is sending out ADS-B.
And it could be a variety of things.
It could be integrated into your transponder.
That's why I kind of said that a second ago.
Or it could be an additional component, which is kind of connected to your transponder.
Or it could be something like the wing-based ADS-B that a lot of our aircraft have from
UAV Onyx, which I've used plenty of times.
But it can also tell you the velocity, whether it's climbing, descending, if it's in level
flight.
It just gives more information than just traditional radar-based information.
This information is broadcast approximately once every second compared to something that's
a lot slower, like radar.
In addition to broadcasting the out information, some aircraft also have the capability to
receive ADS-B in signals.
Now that could be based on your type of transponder you have.
You could have one of those stratuses that, no pun intended, by the way, I could sponsor
by stratus, right?
But you can have one of those stratus or stratics with the X ADS-B in receivers.
Some people have even built them out of raspberry pies, which are pretty cool to see people
do.
And that actually enables them to see real-time information about other aircraft nearby, including
their position, their altitude, velocity, directly into the cockpit.
And by the way, you can't just have this system and then it just starts spewing information
into your headset or into your eyeballs, right?
You need to have an iPad or a GPS system or some type of system built into the aircraft
or with you that is like for flight or fly Q or one of those programs, right?
That way it can show it to you just on that digital display.
It's pretty neat.
Yeah, we're not quite at the point where we can just get that information, right?
You got to have something in between.
I mean, it depends.
Do you think we're living in the matrix, Harson?
We are, especially considering the fact that I'm a pilot.
I think that's crazy enough.
Yeah, I do too.
I don't know how you passed.
I don't know.
You got me there.
But speaking of information, there is a lot of information that pilots can get from their
ADS-B.
And the primary one is that ADS-B in, like Brian was just talking about, allows pilots
to see other aircraft in the vicinity that are equipped with ADS-B out.
So like you said, that includes aircraft's altitude, speed, and direction.
And it can be especially useful in VMC, visual meteorological conditions, where pilots are
pretty much 100% responsible for seeing and avoiding other aircraft.
And one of the great advantages of ADS-B, like you said, is that ability to provide
up-to-date weather information.
It's known as a UAT broadcast.
And that will give you radar, the weather radar, METARs, TAFs, airmats, and SIGMETs.
And that's all examples of some of the data that can be received by certain ADS-B in systems.
So this information, I've actually used it plenty of times.
I'm sure you have too, right, for flight, Brandon?
Absolutely.
It goes right in.
And this can be extremely useful for making strategic decisions during a flight, such
as deviating around bad weather.
I think we talked about that one flight up to Sacramento when I had to use that weather
information to see where I was going and what the cloud coverage was and what the winds
were at my airport that I was trying to get to.
So that'll help to make that good aeronautical decision that we talked about and know that
I probably shouldn't go fly there.
Absolutely.
I mean, it's a lot easier to look at your iPad or look at your GTN 750 and see that
ADS-B in information and seeing all the weather rather than having to call ATC and talk to
one of the radar service stations.
I mean, I've done that a handful of times just because.
And they're starting to phase them out more and more.
But they're still charted and they're still available.
Whenever I've called, they're always excited to talk to me.
And I don't know if they don't do anything else all day or what it is.
But they're pretty excited to give me an entire briefing or let me file a flight plan or whatever
it may be.
I don't think they're that busy nowadays because technology is really taking over.
They're not that busy.
I called one on the way up to Sacramento.
I saw it on the chart and I was a little confused about what the weather was going to be.
And it was mid-flight.
And I said, let's finally make the call.
So I made that call.
They were so excited.
He told me everything that was going on for the next 30 miles at my destination, everything
around my destination, my alternates.
So, yeah, they definitely don't have a lot to do.
So make sure to use that resource as well.
But back to ADS-B, it's important to note that while the ADS-B provides absolute wealth
of useful information, it shouldn't be the sole source of information for pilots.
It's a supplement for the information.
It's not a replacement for things like preflight briefings and continuous updates from ATC
and other sources, just like that flight service station during the flights.
And like Brandon mentioned in one of our last episodes, airspace is updated.
Maybe not super frequently, maybe super frequently.
It depends on where you're at.
But you should know that before you get in the air.
And speaking of airspace, Brandon, what are the requirements for ADS-B in a couple of
different airspaces?
All right.
I'm going to try to go off my memory on all this one.
So if I miss something, either one, Carson, you remind me, or one of our listeners send
me an email and tell me I screwed up.
But I should know all of them, right?
So let's start off with the first one.
Is alpha airspace?
You definitely need it in alpha.
You need it in the class Bravo airspace.
You need it inside of Charlie.
And you also need it going over a Charlie airspace.
But you can go under Charlie airspace without it.
So that is possible.
It is not necessarily needed in class Delta, Echo, or Gulf airspace.
But it can be sometimes.
So it's also required any time that you're flying over 10,000 feet, unless you're in
mountainous area.
And I don't remember the exact number, so don't quote me on this one.
But I think it's 1,000 or 1,500 feet above the highest obstacle in a mountainous area
where it's not needed if you go over 10,000 feet.
So that's also there.
It's also required in the, it was called the mode C Vale for a long time, which is 30 nautical
miles from a class Bravo airport.
But if you look at the charts, they've updated them over the past few years.
And now it says, it says mode C and ADSB.
So now it could be called the ADSB Vale, right?
So that's what's really kind of interesting about all that.
I think I covered all of them.
Do you know if I'm missing any Carson?
No, I think that's everything.
And yeah, he also loved your charts.
Of course he watched it for the update.
Yeah, I did.
It was like the one thing I looked for.
And they actually did that after ADSB was already required.
They did it sometime during COVID.
And I don't really remember when it happened, but I have an extensive collection of charts.
I'm sure I could look up and tell you the exact date if I really wanted to.
Well, I'll say it was 2021.
I remember that change during my flight training.
Oh, nice.
Well, also, so that's kind of where it's required.
So everyone says ADSB is required now, right?
Well, yes, it is required, but it's only required in all of those places.
If you go look at the map of United States, guess what's not covered in most of that map?
ADSB required places, besides over 10,000 feet.
Obviously, that's a little bit different.
But ADSB is not required in most of the United States.
It's really kind of mind blowing.
I know there's a lot of practice areas, especially local to us in Riverside area, where ADSB
is technically not required.
And I trip up students on this all the time.
I'm like, well, why is it required there if they try to tell me it is?
And I'm like, it is not required there.
And flight instructors, who I see a lot of flight instructors over the years, a lot of
them love ADSB in so much.
They love their iPads, and they have them sitting on their lap, and they always just
look for this traffic on their iPad.
And they don't look outside enough.
I tell all these instructors that they're being so foolish, it's ridiculous.
You need to look outside because you're flying VFR.
You need to be looking outside.
You need to be looking for these other aircraft.
Guess what?
The person who's not talking on the radio who you should be worried about also didn't
pay to put ADSB in their airplane.
So guess what?
You're not going to get them on your iPad, and they're not going to be talking to you.
And your head's going to be inside the aircraft instead of outside where it should be.
And you're not going to see this guy, and that's how mid-air collisions happen.
So it actually is creating more distractions in the cockpit as well.
So I think that ADSB, if it's going to be required, it actually should be required in
more locations and more places.
And I don't know if the FAA has a plan for that eventually.
I'm sure they have a plan to expand that system because it does a lot of good.
But it should be expanded into every charted practice area as far as I'm concerned.
I mean, that's a personal opinion.
And then it's not reflective of anything, the FAA or any flight instructor.
By the way, that's only representative of my feelings, by the way.
It's not representative of any flight school or the FAA or anything else.
It could be like a hot button topic, and I don't even know.
But it's a hot button for me because I want more safety out there.
I want people to be safer when they fly, and I want flight instructors to teach safety.
And I want to be safer in the air.
So I think ADSB is a great tool when it comes to that.
But sometimes it's a little overused.
Just like I've seen, I've been in airplanes and people have like five iPads on an airplane.
I'm like, that's a bit too much.
You can tone it down.
You can take an iPad and take your cell phone and make sure four flights downloaded on it.
And there's a good backup for you in addition to your paper charts, of course.
Yeah.
Well, you know, Brand said it's not representative of anything but his opinion.
It's also representative of mine, though.
I've been saved by that ADSB more times than I can count going into Lake Matthews practice
area, especially right next to Riverside Airport and SoCal.
That is a busy, busy practice area.
And like he said, you shouldn't have your head down in the cockpit just staring at your
iPad.
But it's always a good thing to be able to just look out.
And that is be especially in conjunction with your iPad lets you see farther than your eyes
can.
So it helps keep you safe.
And you know, frequently as we talk about the safety of pilots and passengers, in my
eyes, ADSB is really one of the best features pilots can have to increase that safety and
understanding, especially understanding and using ADSB effectively is crucial for modern
pilots.
It's the up and coming technology.
And as this technology continues to be adopted globally, it's going to play an increasingly
significant role in maintaining the safety and efficiency of air traffic.
So being familiar with its operation benefits and knowing how to interpret the information
it provides, it's going to be a key skill for pilots in this ADSB area.
So whether you're a student pilot just starting your journey or an experienced aviator, we
really hope this episode has given you a better understanding of this revolutionary technology.
Yeah, I think it kind of has.
Obviously, we just did a really high overview of ADSB and kind of just touched on some little
components of it.
I really suggest everybody go out and actually, if you go on Google and you type in FAA ADSB,
you'll get to see there's advisory circulars and there's a lot of documents that talk about
ADSB in and out.
And especially it's on the FAA's website, which is where you should be getting your
information in the first place.
But I suggest that everybody goes and looks at where ADSB is required and see if it's
also required in the places that you fly most often.
So you can know if you are relying a little too much on that ADSB into your iPad or if
you're actually improving your safety or hindering it.
People don't really think about that usually when they're flying.
They just think of, hey, this thing's in my cockpit and it's obviously making me a better
pilot.
And unfortunately, that's not always true.
So make sure you kind of think about those things and really think through it.
So thank you guys so much for listening today.
We enjoyed talking about some ADSB and I love talking about my charts, of course.
But if you'd like to reach out to either one of us or correct something that one of us
said today, please reach out to us.
You can reach us via email, Brandon at aviationmentors.com or you can reach Carson at Carson at aviationmentors.com.
And as a wrap up for the day, remember, we're here to guide you in your aviation journey.
So fly safe and enjoy the ride.
See ya.