It was just a rumor, but I liked the idea. I’d heard that the FAA was going to equip all the airplanes in the Washington, D.C., area with ADS-B and UAT so it could better monitor their movements. The rumor got legs from the unfortunate, apparently inadvertent, incursion by the Cessna 150 into the Washington ADIZ that resulted in the mad scramble that played repeatedly on the national news.
But I liked the sound of the rumor. I recently equipped my Cessna Cardinal with the Garmin GDL90 ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) UAT (Universal Access Transceiver), so, although it’s self-serving, I’m in favor of anything that will promote the implementation of ADS-B. For the moment, the coverage area is pretty limited unless you’re flying along the East Coast or a couple of isolated locations around the country. So I liked the rumor. But, unfortunately, it appears it’s just a rumor.
