Southern Wisconsin Times

WASHINGTON, DC – On July 20, Congressman Bryan Steil released a statement after his amendment to the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act passed the House.  

“Ensuring our local airports have the technology and resources necessary to promote safety is an important priority.  With the support of local leaders, in 2021 I requested that the FAA install modern radar equipment at the Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport in Janesville.  I’m pleased to see this amendment pass today to help smaller airports, including the Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport, get one step closer to obtaining the technology they need to conduct safer air operations in our communities.”  

Background: 

Many air traffic controllers at smaller airports rely exclusively on their eyes and ears to direct airport traffic and do not have radar display equipment inside their air traffic control towers. Installing a radar display in an air traffic control tower would allow controllers to receive and view Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) data from aircraft and radar towers at other airports, including aircraft altitude, heading, speed, distance, and weather data.

Steil’s amendment would remove one of the objections to installing a radar display cited by the FAA by directing them to update FAA order 7031.2C and lower the itinerant operations count requirement to 15,000 annually for four consecutive years, impacting more than 100 small airports nationwide. Assisting small airports to obtain this equipment would allow them to continue to grow without compromising safety. 

Original source can be found here.