NEXTGEN....NEXT FLOP

NEXT GEN....NEXT FLOP

My understanding of NextGen is that it is supposed to save the airlines fuel, which saves money, by being able to fly direct to airports instead of using Hi Enroute Airways. There’s only one problem that I ascertain with this hypothesis. 90% of the airline flights go to 28 airports in the US. They all seem to arrive and depart at the same time. So while they might be able to get to the airport destination quicker, they are going to have to wait to land.

General aviation is going to be penalized by having to have ADS-B IN and OUT plus a transponder. My understanding is that we have to have a transponder for the airlines TCAS to work. To me this means that no one trust that ADS-B will work as advertised.

The FAA has the ability to turn on ADS-B for traffic so that everyone who flies with an IPad could see traffic if they have an ADS-B unit in the plane and an Aviation APP. This could save lives NOW! The FAA’s official answer is they won’t turn on traffic now so that pilots will buy an ADS-B IN and OUT unit before the 2020 deadline. 

In the Phoenix Bravo I receive ADS-B traffic. Once I leave the area I’m lucky if I see any traffic for the rest of my trip. The only way this happens is if there is a plane in my vicinity flying with ADS-B OUT. This happens rarely on my cross country trips.

I have written my 2 Senators and 1 Congressman along with AOPA and nothing is happening for the good of safety. I had a generic reply from McCain’s office after 3 months and no reply from the others. SAFETY is what the FAA preaches but does not follow.

RNP approaches are a joke. First a plane has to be equipped with the proper equipment to fly a RNP approach. So far so good. A RNP approach allows a plane to reduce power on the approach and fly the approach without assistance of ATC. By flying a RNP approach a plane will save fuel. The problem with the program is very few planes are equipped to fly RNP and therefore can not fit in with the other traffic at a major airport. SWA equipped their planes with RNP but rarely get approved for the the approach by ATC. It has gotten so bad that pilots have quit requesting a RNP approach. They are usually turned down by ATC.

So we will have all the goodies but will be unable to make use of them while the FAA is spending billions of tax dollars to install NextGen. The FAA has been working on NextGen for 10 years, and it is behind schedule...go figure.