portable traffic avoidance systems

[mrjamesgroves]

Has anyone used these? In particular, I am considering the Trafficscope VRX (range and altitude) or the Trafficscope VR (range and trend). Transair sells the former, the more expensive variant, for GBP 879 although I've seen it on the internet for USD 750. Having looked for reviews on the internet, the major criticism seems to be that having range and altitude information is all very well, but it will never be as useful as relative bearing.

I'm also keen to find out how 'portable' this really is. How do you anchor it down in the cockpit, I can't imagine that it would just sit ontop of the instrument panel without sliding around. And another point, it claims to give audible warnings, but how does this work if your headphones are connected to the plane's intercom?

Had a great flight from EGKB - LFAT - EGKB yesterday, but on three occasions I was within 500m of another aircraft. Whilst recognizing that no system will replace the mark one eyeball, does this provide a useful heads up?

[IO540]

Save the money and put it towards the best GPS you can get.

These cheap boxes don't give you azimuth (horizontal direction) which makes them practically useless.

[NATCA A80]

While I was at the EAA airshow in Oshkosh I looked at several of the portable units and wondered the same thing, just how good is the audible warning in a noisy cockpit, when the pilots are wearing headsets.

As for mounting I was told that you can stick them to the dash, or on one of the side windows and that like my GPS they have a temporary mount that can be stuck on any hard surface then easily removed.

A friend of mine had a similar near miss, and afterward promptly had his airplane painted dayglow yellow with a wide blue stripe. The color was so bright you needed sun glasses to look at his plane, but you could pick him out in the pattern on a hasy day real easy.

Mike
NATCA A80