The FAA, which reopened its ADS-B rebate program on October 12, is continuing to leave rotorcraft on the sidelines. The Helicopter Association International was rejected for a second time in its request to include its members in the program. “The FAA was unable to find enough users during the rebate’s initial offering. [The agency] had excess money left over, which is why it reissued the rebate. And it still would not extend the rebate to the helicopter community,” said Matt Zuccaro, president and CEO of HAI.
Zuccaro added that the helicopter community finds the “dismissal of our sector to be upsetting and unacceptable” and questioned why piston fixed-wing owners have access to financial assistance while similarly equipped helicopter owners do not. “If this is about safety, why is our safety not just as important?” he asked, adding the FAA’s refusal “is blatant discrimination toward helicopter owners and operators.”
The agency announced plans last month to reopen the $500 rebate program to piston fixed-wing aircraft for another year or until the 9,792 available rebates are claimed. In the month following the renewal of the program, 1,438 had been claimed, the agency reported, with an average of 30 to 40 rebates being claimed daily.
According to statistics presented last week at Corporate Jet Investor Miami, only 14.2 percent of rotorcraft are properly equipped for ADS-B, representing the fewest of the aircraft types; 17.5 percent of piston aircraft are currently equipped.
In limiting the rebate to fixed-wing, the agency said it “collaborated with industry to identify the aircraft owners who are most likely to delay their decision to equip with ADS-B because of cost concerns.” The FAA identified fixed-wing, single-engine piston aircraft owners as the most likely to have cost concerns and said its “objective is to incentivize this large population of aircraft owners to equip as soon as possible.”