By Rob Stapleton
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Alaska aviation industry leaders have signed an agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration with hopes to equip aircraft and airports statewide with the next generation of avionics.

The agreement addresses equipping 5,000 active Alaska-based commercial and general-aviation aircraft with the surveillance equipment called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B.

ADS-B is a system that transmits and receives a real-time signal giving information on an equipped aircraft's altitude, speed, direction, destination, size and type from airplane to airplane, and from airplane to traffic controllers. Also called Capstone equipment, it is capable of integrating weather information and a global positioning system onto a moving-terrain map that can be viewed on a display screen mounted in the instrument panel of the aircraft.

The Capstone Safety Program, which uses ADS-B as well as other aids, is credited with increasing aviation safety by 47 percent in Alaska, according to a study by the University of Alaska and the MITRE Corp.

Also in the agreement are provisions to install communications, surveillance, navigation and weather reporting infrastructure to improve safety and efficiency in select locations in Alaska. The agreement proposes to do this by upgrading airports from Visual Flight Rule to Instrument Flight Rule capabilities, and to provide air traffic control surveillance services at select locations in Alaska.

The caveat to this agreement, signed Feb. 9, is that a draft detailing the coordination and planning, equipage assistance, financing options and evaluation of recommended sites be submitted to the FAA Surveillance Broadcast Office by April 27 by a committee made up from the Alaska signatories.

According to the document obtained by the Journal Feb. 13, the aviation industry represented has a responsibility for the implementation.

“The agreement will be considered null and void if industry is unable to successfully equip aircraft as expected in this agreement,” the document states. However, Howard Swancy, an advisor to the deputy administrator of the FAA, said this statement within the agreement is not hard and fast.

“The FAA has a responsibility to see that this agreement works. We can work a plan with the commercial carriers, but we are not sure if general aviation will be as easy; they also have a responsibility to help define and outline the needs for aircraft and their equipage,” Swancy said.

This agreement with FAA and the industry shows that both parties are willing to work to together to develop the infrastructure.

“This is a living document that can be changed to meet the needs, if both parties agree that progress is being made,” Swancy said.

The memorandum of agreement was signed by the Alaska Air Carriers Association, the Alaska Airmen's Association, Alaskan Aviation Safety Foundation, Frontier Flying Service, Peninsula Airways Inc., the Helicopter Association International, and Surveillance and FAA Broadcast Systems program manager Vincent Capezzuto.

Conspicuously missing from the agreement were signatories from the state of Alaska, which owns and operates the airports, the Alaska Federation of Natives, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Era Aviation and Warbelow's Air Ventures.

According to Swancy, officials from the state were at the table during the writing of the agreement.

“The state was at the table, but we need to work together over some issues,” he said. “The AOPA has a policy not to sign on to these type of agreements. This is a living agreement that can be signed into by others in the future.”

Dee Hanson, executive director of the Alaska Airmen's Association, acknowledged the agreement but refused to comment on it.

No specifics were given about how this agreement would be funded, or how the industry will find funding, but it must meet cost-benefit ratios as outlined by the FAA's Joint Resource Council. The council is an internal FAA committee approves expenditures. The council requires a percentage of aircraft to be equipped relative to the amount of area covered by ADS-B technology.

Should no funds be appropriated for these projects, the agreement will be canceled.

A fracture between carriers and aviation organizations over changes to the Capstone program — which is said to be in limbo over changes by the FAA that would move it from a safety program into an air traffic program — surfaced in mid-February. At that time, members of an Alaska aviation industry council and the former Capstone program director John Hallinan approached Sen. Ted Stevens' office, asking that the program be moved under the purview of the Denali Commission.

Denali Commission officials acknowledged the Stevens meeting, but deferred comment to the commission's executive director, George Cannelos, who could not be reached by deadline.

FAA officials, however, acknowledged that they had previously met with both the Institute of the North, a research group founded by former Alaska Gov. Walter Hickel, and the Denali Commission as possible venues for helping with funding issues for a statewide equipage program.

In December 2006, the FAA Capstone program transitioned into the SBS program office, an air traffic division, not a safety division within the FAA.

FAA officials are quick to point out that Capstone is a safety program, but now it is now being managed by an Air Traffic Control division, and that all the FAA programs are safety programs.

Swancy indicated that the Capstone program was merged into the surveillance division in hopes to both manage the ADS-B program nationally and to better meet the cost-ratio demands of the Joint Resource Council.

Rob Stapleton can be reached at rob.stapleton@alaskajournal.com.