LEE'S SUMMIT, MISSOURI, July 21, 2014 -- To help incentivize owners of general aviation aircraft to meet the Federal Aviation Administration's ADS-B Out mandate, the Aircraft Electronics Association will randomly award five aircraft owners with $1,000 toward an ADS-B compliant upgrade. 

"The FAA recently made it clear to Congress that the Jan. 1, 2020, deadline for ADS-B Out compliance is not going to change," said Paula Derks, AEA president. "The avionics repair shops have less than six years to equip approximately 186,000 operational aircraft, which means the industry must upgrade more than 130 aircraft per workday between now and the deadline. Currently, the industry is barely upgrading 100 aircraft a month, or around five per workday. Obviously, there's a lot of catching up to do. 

"While the avionics repair shops have the capacity to meet demand at the present time, this will not be the case beyond 2016 unless the installation pace picks up dramatically. Aircraft owners who wait to equip will face scheduling pressure and higher installation costs as we get closer to the deadline. By awarding $1,000 to five different aircraft owners to help them become compliant sooner rather than later, the AEA hopes to send a message to owners of general aviation aircraft that the time to act and upgrade is now."  

Aircraft owners may enter to win one of the five $1,000 giveaways at the AEA's booth (No. 2035/36 in hangar B) during the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The AEA will announce one winner each day from July 29 through Aug. 2 through its social media outlets on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and from its booth in Oshkosh.

Aircraft owners must be at least 18 years old to register to win. Each of the five winners must use an AEA-member avionics shop to complete the installation, and the installation must be scheduled by Aug. 1, 2015. One entry gives aircraft owners a chance to win each of the five daily drawings.