With the FAA mandate for ADS-B equipage looming at the beginning of 2020, there is debate within the industry as to whether this added expense will precipitate a major retirement of elderly business aircraft, those whose diminished value and use would scarcely justify the cost of the upgrade. Some believe the cost of equipage could drop so much by the deadline that many of those owners will indeed make the move to upgrade their aircraft, which are still perfectly capable of flight despite their… (www.ainonline.com) 更多...
Good article. The title subject is misleading. ADS-B is relatively inexpensive for most planes, put in a Garmin GTX345 and a WAAS gps source to it. The real reason is in the body of the article, engine overhaul cost. An old Lear or 500 Citation is worth what’s left on the engines.
Its my understanding that complying with ADSB out will be relatively expensive for older turbo-prop aircraft that do not have a high book value anyway. Also, if an aircraft has a flight management system, they may be difficult and expensive to upgrade.
Granted if it is integrated into an FMS it can be expensive. We just did a CJ2 for less than $7k using our Garmin 530w as the sensor and a GTX345. A stand-alone gps sensor and ADS-B out transponder is still pretty cheap tho. We also got ADS-B in for that which displays traffic and weather and attitude info on Foreflight. Again what shuts these planes down is engine overhaul cost. That $7k would not have put our old Turbo Commander out to pasture, $500k engine overhauls did tho.
Flying magazine did an article listing what they call are the 6 myths around ADS-B equipage. It's worthwhile to read. I won't list the website as it's easy to find in your favorite search engine.
It's the little guys that's going to get hurt. People that own a Cub or a T-Craft, or an Airknocker at VNY, (for example) or any other towered airport: they'll need to install an entire electrical system to run the ADS-B out, and then there's the issue of an alternator on a 65HP engine. Aside from the expense of installing an electrical system, then expense of installing the ADS-B out - both of which will probably equal the cost of the airplane - then there's the load on the smaller engine.
It will probably ground a lot of aircraft.
The FAA's motto: "We're not happy until you're not happy."
I wonder if there is any market for those fuselages to be made into travel trailers, motorhomes, storage buildings, houseboats, or playground playhouses.