Some readers might see the cover of our latest digital edition and think: ADS-B again? That’s an understandable reaction, especially for those impacted by the FAA’s 2020 rule. During the years leading up to the Jan. 1, 2020 ADS-B Out mandate, there were never a lack of topics to cover, including the pace of equipage and what type of actual benefits operators could derive from equipping—other than just being able to use airspace where ADS-B Out is required.

But now, a year and a half after the mandate officially became an airspace regulation, believe it or not there is still plenty to cover regarding what has now become the National Airspace System’s primary surveillance medium. One example includes the call sign mismatch problem that the FAA is currently working with operators on. According to a recent webinar held by the agency, the problem involves a mismatch occurring between the aircraft ID—aka N-number—that gets filed by a pilot with their flight plan sometimes not matching the ADS-B Flight ID field that they broadcast for their flight.

As you’ll see in our cover story, that will especially become a problem for both the FAA and airspace users across all segments as new ADS-B In applications such as Interval Management start getting used more frequently.

In this month’s edition, we also cover operational and policy changes that are being studied and evaluated by air navigation service providers and airlines for the world’s busiest oceanic airspace, the North Atlantic. Frank Wolfe provides updates on how civil aviation authorities in the U.S. and Europe are working with the industry to streamline the way they regulate cybersecurity requirements for connected aircraft systems. Kelsey Reichmann attempts to answer the question as to whether or not commercial drone operators will face any of the type of avionics equipage requirements that traditional and rotary fixed wing operators do.

Let me know what mandate related coverage we missed in this issue and as always, thanks for reading!