The ADS-B system that is the cornerstone of the FAA’s NextGen ATC modernization plan is at risk of serious security breaches, according to Brad Haines (aka RenderMan), a hacker and network security consultant who is worried about ADS-B vulnerabilities.
Avionics and ATC » ATC
News, issues, personnel, equipment and developments about air traffic management.
August 21, 2012 - 3:45pm
While the London Olympics did not boost levels of private aviation traffic to the extent anticipated, data aggregated from Eurocontrol and Avinode shows that, compared with the same period last year, the region experienced a 19.2-percent increase in arrivals during the games period (July 26 to August 12). Flight activity increased most significantly in the days before the opening ceremonies, with 215 business jet arrivals recorded in the London area on July 27. However, Avinode said, June and July still experienced a decrease in per-day traffic from the year-ago period.
August 16, 2012 - 3:50pm
“The Block Aircraft Registration Request [Barr] program doesn’t really provide privacy; it’s just a barrier,” Dustin Hoffman, president of Los Angeles-based IT engineering firm Exigent Systems, told AIN. Hoffman, who has a private pilot certificate and flies a piston single for his business, set out to prove his point at the Defcon 20 computer security conference earlier this month in Las Vegas.
August 16, 2012 - 3:35pm
Despite predictions of significantly increased private jet movements during the London 2012 Olympics, overall industry traffic levels were around 25 percent below expectations, according to online charter broker PrivateFly. The UK Department for Transport had estimated 3,000 additional private jet movements during the Games.
August 14, 2012 - 2:55pm
The FAA will not implement “Climb Via” procedures and phraseology, as well as Notice JO 7110.585 regarding speed adjustment, tomorrow as originally planned, according to NBAA Air Traffic Services. The agency “made a last-minute determination to cancel” the changes “due to concerns over adequacy of pilot and controller briefing material,” it said. “This means implementation will not occur tomorrow. The FAA will determine a revised implementation date and advise industry when that is known.” However, “Descend Via” procedures will remain in place.
August 5, 2012 - 1:55am
Under pressure from a pair of local high-profile congressmen, Howard Berman (D) and Brad Sherman (D), the FAA has announced it will hold a community hearing on helicopter noise in the L.A. basin during the first week of August. The hearing will take testimony from concerned parties that will be the basis of a report that could provide the basis for imposed and/or voluntary solutions.
August 5, 2012 - 12:50am
The FAA is making “significant changes,” effective August 15, that will affect pilots flying instrument departures and arrivals. Pilots unfamiliar with the new “climb via” changes could be faced with separation losses, pilot deviations and potentially tense moments in the cockpit, according to NBAA. The new “climb via” instruction for standard instrument departures (SIDs) mirrors the similar “descend via” instruction already being issued for standard terminal arrival route (Star) procedures.
August 5, 2012 - 12:40am
The hotly debated North Shore Route over New York’s Long Island will be mandatory for at least the next two years. The route was added to the New York helicopter chart in 2008 and operators were encouraged to use it voluntarily. However, local politicians, including U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), pressed Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and the FAA to make it mandatory. Operators have expressed concern that a substantial part of the route is over water. The rule mandating the route will lapse in two years unless the FAA takes further action.
August 3, 2012 - 2:45am
For LightSquared founder Philip Falcone, a man who has seen his 2008 assets of $28 billion dwindle to less than $5 billion today, having the Securities and Exchange Commission hound him for mishandling the payment of his 2009 personal federal and state taxes of $113 million must be a bit irksome.
August 2, 2012 - 2:15am
The concept isn’t new. In fact, one could call it a logical extension of development work that originated with Saab in Sweden in the mid-2000s, which showed the economic potential of datalinking various sensors at an unmanned airport to controllers at a distant air traffic monitoring and control center. Such a center could handle a number of small airports that had relatively few arrivals and departures but that still needed personnel to maintain a monitoring watch.
