The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) welcomed the newly appointed FAA deputy administrator’s reaffirmation of the 2020 deadline for ADS-B. In one of his first public addresses as FAA deputy administrator, Daniel Elwell told the NextGen Advisory Committee (NAC) meeting last week, “You have heard my predecessors say this before, and I will continue to communicate this important message: The ADS-B OUTut equipage mandate will not change. The December 31, 2019 date is firm.”

Elwell is the designated federal official on the NAC, which is chaired by FedEx president and COO Dave Bronczek. The latest NAC meeting, held June 28 in Memphis, also addressed priorities for improving Northeast corridor operations, space-based ADS-B in FAA-controlled oceanic airspace, DataComm, mixed equipage and implementation of certain NextGen capabilities such as wake recategorization and PBN.

Elwell’s pledge to stick by the 2020 deadline followed concerns of General Aviation Caucus co-chair Sam Graves (R-Missouri) that general aviation might need to ask for an extension. Graves pointed to the backlog of aircraft that still must equip and referred to the limited capacity to accommodate those aircraft and said, “The numbers don’t work.”

But at this point, both GAMA and AOPA continue to back the deadline. “We are supportive of ADS-B equipage and encourage pilots to do so to meet the 2020 mandate,” AOPA said last week. “The 2020 mandate remains in place, and GAMA supports it,” GAMA added.

Following Elwell’s remarks, GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce further stated, “We have confirmed across the full spectrum of general aviation associations that our industry strongly supports air traffic control modernization to include having the ADS-B OUT mandate stand firm. We look forward to working with the deputy administrator to facilitate accelerated equipage rates for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft as the mandate deadline approaches.”