Pocket TCAS -- an idea
I've been wondering about TCAS and GA. Unless I misunderstand, TCAS is a fairly complex piece of kit and, presumably, quite expensive to fit relative to the other costs of the smaller Cessnas and the like. Which is why it isn't there, but there are enough incidents and accidents to make one feel that perhaps it should.
I think it would be possible to build a TCAS-like system in a box roughly the size of a handheld GPS, and a few back-of-the-envelope design sketches make me feel it shouldn't cost more than £400-£500 in volume. There are lots of interesting engineering (and other) challenges, but I think the basic building blocks are available and the overall complexity of the system would be comparable to existing systems like GPS and GSM. I'm not sure of my knowledge enough to properly consider the issue of interoperability with existing TCAS, though.
Is anyone doing such a thing? Would it be worth developing? Would it help PPLs avoid accidents, or would it be one more distraction to confound the less confident aviator?
R
PS -- Aargh! As is the way of such things, the moment I posted this I found out the existence of ADS-B, which looks much like what I had in mind. Oh, well... is it?
[This message has been edited by Self Loading Freight (edited 26 August 2000).]