Most of us know that one of the newest aviation tracking technologies, known as ADS-B, is the latest buzzword. Touted as an affordable answer to aerial traffic congestion, if $10,000 and up is your idea of affordable, in the crowded skies above Los Angeles and similar busy mega-centers ADS-B has many flaws, says Steve Shackelford, Terminal Operations Specialist in the Air Traffic Division at the Los Angeles Regional Office, who spoke to PVPA at the June meeting.

Steve began his presentation with a video featuring AOPA president Phil Boyer who was seen extolling the virtues of the system and explaining how this new tracking technology will benefit pilots flying in congested airspace. The rest of his presentation was filled with possible horror scenarios involving the system, something Boyer failed to mention. In all fairness we checked the AOPA website and found an article titled ADS-B delayed down under, which relate the problem of spoofing the system. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, we are providing links below to a few websites we found, which provide information and discuss the pros and cons of ADS-B.

• FAA Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) website
• FAA ADS-B Home Page
• ADS-B Technologies, LLC
• Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast Programs (Australia)
• Will ADS-B Increase Safety and Security for Aviation?
• ADS-B Creates a New Standard of Aviation Safety (Garmin)

Following the ADS-B discussion, Steve gave us some tricks to help with interpretation of weather information. We found out that COW will help us remember that Cold Over Warm (air) is unstable. Think of those rascally farm boys who like to engage in the "sport" of Cow Tipping. Cows are easy to tip over since they are unstable as is warm air rising through the cold. On the other hand think of how stable a Chinese Wok is and them misspell it to WOC, representing Warm Over Cold (air), which is a stable air mass. He also talked about Suck and Blow as they relate to weather, but we'll let him explain that one for you. Steve teaches weather and related subjects. Contact him for class information.

China Tour
PVPA President David Kerkhoff passed along information about an 18-day trip to China, featuring tour of the cave from which General Chennault ran the Flying Tiger operations and a visit to China's largest air museum. For more information, visit the Travel Aire website.