Are there satcom systems available for general aviation use?
A. There are satcoms for commercial airline and business aircraft use and are type approved for various aircraft in these classes. They are available for ATC and ground to air/air to ground crew communications and passenger to ground communications. These systems are generally beyond justifiable economic use by general aviation recreational and small business users. However the portable systems are in use by bush pilots for ground communications from remote areas, for flight operations, flight planning, passenger communications, forest fire and search and rescue coordination.
