The FAA is Still Trying To Save Face

ADS-B again...

The FAA is offering relief from the 2020 deadline, only this time is not just Part 121 air carriers but all aircraft, even GA!

It is all pretty qualified, you still need to try to meet the 2020 deadline. The only relief is really in the position source and it's level of service. For ADS-B the FAA wants C-145/146 WAAS type level of accuracy. That is a good thing, since the more accurate your ADS-B location is the fewer alerts others may get.

The is this old joke:

Tower: "Alpha Charlie, climb to 4000 ft for noise abatement" 
Pilot: "How can I possibly be creating excess noise at 2000 ft?" 
Tower: "At 4000 ft you will miss the twin coming at you at 2000 ft, and that is bound to avoid one hell of a racket".

And with poor location indication, something like this could happen.

Will the FAA be official about any of this anytime soon? Probably not. They most likely don't want you to know anything about it, and would rather have all aircraft fully compliant on 2020. But for folks with older GPS receivers or pre-2013 ADS-B capable installs it will be nice to not have to rush for a full panel upgrade.

It only relief. It isn't full abandonment of the rules. The full rules will still go into effect 2025 or so they say.

I know the reluctant airlines are making an effort to upgrade. I would agree they should be reluctant. The FAA has encouraged them to move forward in RNP, and other NextGen projects only to loose support after the aircraft were upgraded.

Maybe the FAA will play ball this time.