Montana committee backs bill barring ADS‑B data for automated invoicing of small planes

The House Transportation Committee voted to advance House Bill 571 after a hearing in which pilots and aviation groups urged the panel to bar the use of Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADSB) data to generate invoices for general aviation aircraft that operate under 14 CFR part 91 and have gross weight of 9,000 pounds or less.

Representative Clacken, sponsor of the one‑page bill, said the measure is narrowly drawn to prevent airports or private companies from using ADS‑B — a GPS‑based safety and traffic‑management system — to calculate, generate or collect landing fees from small aircraft. "ADSB is a system that gives really good clarity to where aircraft are in the air," Clacken said in opening remarks, but he told the committee he does not want the safety system used as a means to invoice…