The Office of Inspector General for the Transportation Department reports that the FAA’s ADS-B plan faces “significant risks and challenges.” The number-one issue: Reluctance to purchase and install the required new avionics. “Users have raised justifiable concerns about evolving requirements and uncertain equipage costs and benefits,” the report says and brings back up the idea of cost sharing on incentives for upgrading users. The report also points to promised cost savings by using contractors that have evaporated or ended up costing more than doing things in-house. Meanwhile, the Airline Electronics Association says the new FAA guidelines that require ADS-B equipment to be installed under the supplemental type certificate (STC) process will “stall early equipage, delay early implementation, and, at the extreme, cause the failure of ADS-B implementation all together.”
The FAA will move forward on requiring photos for pilot certificates. The requirement for pilot certificates to have a photo and be capable of carrying biometric data (such as fingerprint or iris scans) has been around since 2004, but the FAA hasn’t completed the process. Currently, pilots are required to carry a government-issued photo ID in addition to their pilot certificate. The current certificates can carry the biometric data, although no such data currently is required.
