The conundrum of ADS-B

[Rich]

Your seeing low altitude traffic w/o ADS-B out is interesting. I don't see any local traffic in my area even when I am close to the FAA installed transceiver near BOI or the one on a peak near MYL that uses a microwave link back to MYL to achieve the up-link. Are you seeing all traffic that you can independently confirm or just some? Any explanation? I thought the "official" word is no low altitude traffic unless you have Out and not reliable traffic until or unless everyone does.

It's sporadic enough that the only thing I normally use it for is if I see something that looks like it should be visible I try to confirm it. Sometimes I do the reverse. But stuff does come and go so I don't right now draw a lot of conclusions from what I see. Stuff is getting picked up by a Stratus, which picks up 1090 and 978 stuff. So maybe that makes a difference.

As far as weather, I get everything I need. Nasty convective is almost nonexistent around here and ATIS seems to be updated right as it changes. So I can watch reported terminal conditions change from 150 miles out and along the route. This has been very useful.

[rwtucker]

I'm using a Dual. Could be a difference there. I got it primarily to do a side-by-side comparison with the G1000 to see if it could serve as an acceptable Wx alternative to the $60/month XM. Practically speaking, it gives me the Wx a light duty pilot like me needs in most situations but I'm finding I don't like the extra junk in the already crowded cabin. I have heard a couple of pilots complain about the slower update intervals in active Wx. Around here and across the Continental Divide, we get get a lot of nasty, highly localized, short lived thunderstorm cells. XM and the G1000 have proven themselves to me on long night flights. I guess the ADS-B Wx could be used similarly but I would be worried about an iPad lockup or getting out of transceiver range out here in the vast, empty G space.

[Rich]

I'm using a Dual. Could be a difference there. I got it primarily to do a side-by-side comparison with the G1000 to see if it could serve as an acceptable Wx alternative to the $60/month XM. Practically speaking, it gives me the Wx a light duty pilot like me needs in most situations but I'm finding I don't like the extra junk in the already crowded cabin. I have heard a couple of pilots complain about the slower update intervals in active Wx. Around here and across the Continental Divide, we get get a lot of nasty, highly localized, short lived thunderstorm cells. XM and the G1000 have proven themselves to me on long night flights. I guess the ADS-B Wx could be used similarly but I would be worried about an iPad lockup or getting out of transceiver range out here in the vast, empty G space.

You are correct to be concerned about coverage near where you fly. If you look at the coverage maps it gets pretty easy to find dead space all up and down the Rockies and even nearby. I've found dead areas in certain spots in the Cascades at intermediate altitudes. And it's true you'll get zilch below 1500 ft. AGL in even more areas. And no offense, but when I lived in Eastern Idaho, I routinely ran into pilots who couldn't be bothered with regs, anyway. Not troubling themselves with niceties such as annual inspections or even pilot certificates. So I would expect ADS-B out scofflaws to be in relative abundance.

As far as space my iPad mini doesn't take up any more space than a chart would, so that's not a big deal. And I've never known it to "lock up". The Stratus II sits in an unused area behind the hobbs right now. And since I don't have a G1000, weather displays on the panel really aren't in my future anyway.

[rwtucker]

. . .when I lived in Eastern Idaho, I routinely ran into pilots who couldn't be bothered with regs, anyway. Not troubling themselves with niceties such as annual inspections or even pilot certificates. So I would expect ADS-B out scofflaws to be in relative abundance.

This is another topic but I'm pretty aggressive when I encounter a transponder scofflaw or, my favorite, when backwoods aircraft execute a departing cross halfway down a commercial runway, hitting the midfield downwind at pattern AGL. I haven't ever hung out in the eastern part of the state (just fly over). It seems like an entirely different state in terms of culture, etc. Around BOI, EUL, MYL, SUN, etc. the cowboys seem to be fewer in number than even a few years ago. I don't have evidence to link this to age. Just the opposite. All of the 75-85 year old pilots I know (quite a bunch of them) are solid guys, lots of them former military or commercial and have been flying for 60 years. If I had to pick a group, it looks to me like ranchers who fly their spreads then fly "into town" (meaning real airports) for repairs, etc. The way a few of them use comm, it is hard to believe they even have licenses and I can tell that they are sometimes talking to their ranch hands. I don't know why the FAA doesn't spend more time grounding the aircraft of these guys and less time resisting the driver's license medical.

[Charles K]

Has anyone tried a portable ADS-B out solution such as the SkyguardTWX? Might be a good temporary solution.

Charles

[rwtucker]

Just looked at it Charles. The low price makes it an attractive solution. Looks like the App is free too and I really like the way you can configure the transmitter from the App.

Now, if they would just make a G-1000 interface! I don't like having all that fancy glass and then having to string cords and unattached devices in the cockpit.

Are you thinking of investing in one?

Afterthought. I think you would want to wire into the buss with a CB or reconfigure the current aux. power plug. I Don't think our "cigarette lighter" port would meet the power requirements.

[Charles K]

It is a possible low cost solution - they seem to be working on TSO cert as well.

[Colin]

"Plan to meet FAA 2020 ADS-B OUT requirement once TSO-C154c certification has been completed"

Well, I love the idea of getting the requirement out of the way for a thousand dollars. That seems like a disruptive technology. But certification is not a given. We'll have to see.

[rwtucker]

So, how would this work in terms of Wx and TIS-B? For traffic, it would be nice if we could route the aural portion to our intercom. If the audio is similar to TIS-A, that would be sufficient. (I can see a way to do that.) Plus, there is no need to have constant access to Wx in most VFR. How about IRF? Are we stuck with a tablet and squinting at the display?

[hoyaj]

"Plan to meet FAA 2020 ADS-B OUT requirement once TSO-C154c certification has been completed"

I think this assumes that the FAA will accept aircraft position data from a handheld device. My sense of that, given a 99.9% availability threshold, is unlikely, bordering on extremely unlikely.

ymmv