During this week’s NBAA Regional Forum, West Palm Beach, Fl., Flying Colours Corp. – Booth 119 – will be promoting its ADS-B Out services in support of the industry’s preparation for the 1 January 2020 mandate. To prepare for the increased demand for the tracking system installations Flying Colours Corp. has invested in additional equipment inventory, and upped its team numbers, increasing its ADS-B Out installation capacity by approximately 30% percent.
In addition, the North America-headquartered business has developed ADS-B Out Supplemental Type Certificates, (STC) for the Bombardier Challenger 300, 604, and 605 aircraft. It already holds approval from the FAA, TCCA and EASA, to install the ADS-B OUT solution on the Bombardier Challenger 604/605 airframes, and has installed the solution on more than 20 aircraft of these types across North America, and sold the STC for installation by other completion centres on an additional 20 aircraft. In total, it has installed more than 30 ADS-B out solutions in the last year.
The STC for the Challenger 300, also finalised by the FAA in 2017, is expected to complete the TCCA and EASA validation process in the coming weeks, so authorizing Flying Colours to bolster its options for North American operators, as well as the international sector.
“When we are upgrading avionics, scheduling maintenance, or talking to customers about conversions we always have the ADS-B Out conversation to ensure that owners have considered all the options available. We want to try and help futureproof their aircraft as there are many new avionics upgrades coming down the pipeline,” says Kevin Kliethermes, director of sales for Flying Colours Corp.
Kliethermes anticipates that the number of installations made by Flying Colours will increase substantially over the next two years, with capacity for seven to ten per month available across its two facilities. The United States KSUS facility operates a 24/7 shift rotation which will further support the service. “The technology has been mainly installed for private owners who are getting ahead of the game ensuring their aircraft will be ready, and futureproofed, to comply with the NextGEN air traffic management systems that are being introduced,” adds Kliethermes.
The growth in ADS-B Out installation numbers has been supported by a growth in the company’s avionics business overall. The team has worked on more than 30 different avionics projects in the last year. It has fitted the Pro Line 21™ Advanced package, Ku-band, Ka-band installations, as well as outfitting the first Canadian registered aircraft with the Rockwell Collins network’s Future Airspace Navigation System (FANS) 1/A upgrade installed in combination with the ADS-B solution.