Updated TAS605A - on the way back

Well, apart from the complete f***-up that is Brexit (don't get me started, but before you get too smug, remember that what you did in November '16 trumps any foolishness here in the June) we also have a pretty f***ed-up approach to ADS-B, FIS-B etc.

We have no official TIS-B or FIS-B, but various private organisations are providing localised experimental services.  These experiments are being supported in a sort of way by the CAA, but there is no public provision and no mandate.

The CAA is very keen on universal electronic conspicuity, mostly to protect airspace but also, to a lesser extent, to mitigate mid-airs, but wants adoption to be voluntary rather than mandated (they get terrible flak whenever they mandate stuff, like Mode S and 8.33).  

The other confounding factor is that there are two other commercial systems available.  FLARM is very widely used by gliders, mainly to "see" each other at very short range, mainly in thermals, though there is a Power-FLARM version which incorporates ADS-B; and something called Pilot Aware, which is also proprietary, but there are versions with ADS-B as well.

So universal EC is made more difficult by a range of standards out there which people have already spent money on, and with quite a large installed base.

So the choice is between standardisation and interoperability.

Because they want to avoid making it compulsory, the CAA's need to make EC attractive instead.  Part of that attractiveness, as well as collision avoidance, low price, no installation, battery power, light weight etc would be the provision of FIS-B and TIS-B services.  Hence the "interest" in services being provided, particularly by SkyDemon.  The good thing about TIS-B services is that it is a good way to provide interoperability, as Mode C, ADS-B, Flarm and Pilot Aware could be combined and rebroadcast as one standard.

So, it's a typical British bodge-up, really.

And then, while the UK CAA is doing this, the EU is also funding a project called GAINS, aimed at investigating the best use of RNAV, GNSS and EC for GA, and EASA has its own EC project, so goodness knows how they are all going to fit together, especially under the looming cloud of Brexit.  

Let us not forget that, while you might think of the UK as 1/28 of the EU, in terms of Aviation, not to mention technological expertise and economy, it is hugely more than that.  In Aviation regulation, our contribution is enormous, and we are recognised as the biggest innovator and fresh thinker, so if we were, God forbid, to crash out of EASA, the effect on EASA, not to mention us, would be huge.

It's completely f***ed up.

Does that answer the question? :-D