GA ADS-B Trial in Southern England

[Forfoxake]

Impressively cheap ADS-B in/out but not much use until more light aircraft can transmit ADS-B. Anyone know how the trial is going?


Meanwhile, PowerFlarm continues to offer safety benefits now.

The March 2015 firmware update took one backward step imho when it removed the audio warnings from PowerFlarm portable when operating on it's internal batteries. Since this is the most useful feature of the system imho, I now power the unit in the air with a separate rechargeable 8 battery pack. I may plum into my own aircraft's electrics later but the separate battery pack allows me to use the full functionality of PowerFlarm portable when flying other aircraft.

I increasingly do not look much at the screen but certainly pay attention when the unit starts to bleep, now through my headset. This usually means Mode C traffic is near so I have a good look out the window and waggle my wings. This is particularly useful when flying long distances in apparently empty airspace in Scotland/Northern England but encountering other traffic not known about by ATSUs or warned about very late (Of course, under basic service, ATSU have no obligation to warn me about conflicting traffic anyway). The unit also annoyingly bleeps briefly when you are on short finals and there is a transponding aircraft sitting short of the threshold but I suppose this confirms it is working.


I am not sure of the value of displaying traffic on a virtual radar screen (on Skydemon etc). You really do not need to know about most of the traffic nearby- only about the ones that might hit you! You should be looking out the window if traffic is nearby, not at a computer screen. That is why increasingly urgent warning bleeps are so useful.


Since I often fly in Class D airspace too, I think I might have observed a bit of a delay in displayed information for ADS-B airline contacts, mainly height difference. This may be because of the high speeds and descent/climb rates of most airliners and hopefully would not affect the warning bleeps if a collision was imminent but it is a concern if it applies to light aircraft. Has any detailed research been done? FLARM detection continues to impress but not many aircraft, even gliders, have it in the UK at present.


So, despite the fact that lots of traffic does not have a transponder, FLARM or ADS-B out, PowerFlarm is definitely worth having.


PS. I have no connection with the makers or retailers of PowerFlarm.