4 ms·
Yup, in no small measure, this is a problem of scaling. It is true that "we've always done it this way (keeping stuff in our heads and talking on crappy radios
by toss1 3y ago
Yup, in no small measure, this is a problem of scaling.
It is true that "we've always done it this way (keeping stuff in our heads and talking on crappy radios)" has worked.
It is also true that there is more traffic than ever at almost every airport.
Every system has limits to its ability to scale. This system is evidently starting to exceed those limits. Beyond this one deadly accident, more worrying are the record number of near-misses in US airspace [0].
The entire system needs to be changed. It'll be interesting to see how they do this and still stay backwards-compatible with small general-aviation airports. Or will there be a hard-break at some class of airspace?
[0] https://www.aviationtoday.com/2023/09/12/alarming-rise-in-near-misses-among-u-s-airlines/ https://www.aviationtoday.com/2023/09/12/alarming-rise-in-ne...
- burnerthrow008 3y agoPart of the problem is that the scale of aircraft manufacturing is small. Cessna has produced fewer 172’s since the beginning of time (the most-produced civil aircraft in history) than Toyota sells Corollas in a month. So everything is expensive because of NRE. That means nobody wants to pay to add another box to the cockpit. Now you have a game of prisoner’s dilemma: unless every aircraft is equipped with the safety technologies HN is proposing, you get little benefit. Until everyone has the little box, the controller still has to say everything over the radio (so unequipped planes can hear what everyone else is doing). “So what’s in it for me if I upgrade?” So things like ADSB don’t happen until the FAA mandates that everyone spend $10k for parts and labor on cockpit upgrades and offers a new free digital weather service and a bunch of other sweeteners. And still some aircraft are exempt from the ADSB mandate.
- toss1 3y agoExactly. That's why I'm wondering if they'll just put a hard limit on GA and other aircraft, e.g., if you don't have ADSB and other upgrades, you can't go into any Class-A, Class-B, Class-C, or Class-D airspace....?
- wildzzz 3y agoDepending on where you are, you can literally fly around in a GA plane with no radio and be perfectly legal. You can build your own airstrip (no approvals necessary other than any municipal building permits) and fly around with no radio in a homebuilt ultralight (no license or certification required).