Ask ATC: Is ADS-B enough?

There are plenty of good reasons to request VFR flight following services, even if your on-board equipment displays traffic. Hear different controllers give their insights.

Ask ATC is produced in partnership with NATCA and FAA.

[Aerosnapper]

These are really helpful, instructive and well-composed videos.  Thank you to all the participants in their production

[gonzo_]

ATC is awesome! I got a tour of NorCal center and am blown away at the workload the controllers balance. Like it has been said before more layers keeps us all safe.

[adamkoller]

Ive been flying near bravo airspace with ADS-B for two years now. I always talk to ATC, whether VFR and IFR. Having both layers of information is wonderful, and one is not a replacement for the other. Case in point, I was departing a tiny untowered airport at dusk not yet talking to ATC, another plane was approaching the downwind and passed me roughly 100 yards away at the same altitude. The ADS-B warned me of the other airplane. It is also helpful to reconcile ATC’s advisorys with that on your screen. I find it very handy on almost every flight.

[kenbrokamp]

Your presentation is very timely. ADSB usage has created a lot of unanswered questions that are not being addressed by the FAA.

[RPHeliopilot]

Once, flying along fat, dumb and happy with flight following from ATL Approach, TIS on the 530 and ADS-B In and receiving ground stations after an "out" equipped airplane pinged it the only one/thing that saw the Baron cross in front of me, about 200' away and maybe 50' above was me. He came from about an 8 o'clock position and I didn't see him until he moved in front of my left wing. Eyeballs outside of the airplane, EVERYBODY!

[swedeflyer]

This video should be updated, not that I don't agree with that ATC Flight Following is recommended, but adsb is an invaluable tool, and yes it does include TFR and if implemented properly can also display the Make Model of targets.

[ganthrithor]

ADS-B is cool, but people need to know how to fly without it and how to put the traffic information into perspective. If I had a nickel for every time I had to remind a student to stop staring at their iPad and look outside, or persuade them to look before initiating an evasive action based on an on-screen popup where Foreflight insists you're about to crash into yourself...

[lamberto]

You don't have to convince me about flight following!!! It's a great thing and it's free! I don't know how many things in life are quite like that...

[shannondror]

I appreciate the candor of the ATC rep who revealed that ADS-B is not presenting a complete picture.  The problem, however, is that such an admission reveals that the system is unreliable to the point of worthlessness.  Its entire purpose is to bring into the cockpit the information needed by the pilot to see and avoid traffic.  ATC has never been able to supply sufficient information for a pilot to maintain full responsibility to manage his flight. ADS-B was intended to give the pilot-in-command the autonomy that is needed to do so, by providing a comprehensive picture of his or her airspace.  The whole point of requiring all operators to equip their aircraft by the unremitting date of 2020 was to ensure that everyone within the airspace is reporting their presence, trajectory, speed, etc. It is the pilots who are held responsible for the conduct of their flights; they cannot rely on ATC regardless of how helpful they may try to be.  If ADS-B is not yet providing all needed  information, it must be upgraded to do so.  ATC must be removed from the false notion of "control" and recognize that all it can really do is "monitor". EOT

[franklibretto]

I have even had phantom traffic show up on the GPS unit. This system is not flawless yet, and should not be relied upon 100%. However, it is a great backup plan when ATC may be too busy for flight following. It happens all the time in the New York metro area.

[VMCAviationVideos]

ADS-B should be viewed as a supplement to flight following. As probably many other pilots, I came close to a head on collision while flying with Flight Following and no word on the traffic from ATC.

[publicmail]

Always multiple layers of protection, it's common sense.

[zee]

Half the time ADSB traffic is more distraction than being helpful. I personally prefer flight following or just IFR to have ATC (I trust their radar PRIMARY more than ADSB at this point) watching out for me.

The weather on the other hand, is a very valuable aid in visualizing the big weather picture and I absolutely love it.

[petethecatable]

I am very worried about this technology and the likelihood that pilots are going to substitute it for looking out the window. My guess is that all of us who have flown for any length of time have had something like a near miss even when under the supposedly watchful eye of ATC. ADS-B could be a great technological aid to “see and avoid” but I fear that many pilots, some of whom already show inadequate attention to situational awareness are going to trust this too much or become inured to false alarms that seem to happen a lot with these devices.

[aviatortrevor]

Even after 2020, you could be outside of the 30nm "mode-C" veil (it will be called something else in 2020), and if you're outside of TIS coverage, you won't see a plane that isn't equipped with ADS-B (which is legal after 2020 so long as they don't fly within 30nm of a class B airport).

[rkan]

So what is needed is satellite/internet enabled Flightradar24 type od service :P

[martincoddington]

The guy is going to vector me around wake turbulence? Since turbulence is usually invisible, I don't think so.

[davejones]

Cool video. Btw the lady in that video is stunning..

[skidivr]

So, how many mid air collisions occur every year? And don't count the collisions in the traffic pattern. Those will not be prevented by ads-b.

[elonmustard]

How does ADS-B erroneously report itself as traffic to itself? 0:50