PCAS collision avoidance radar

[jimshutt]

Is there anybody out there who has had experience with the Zaon PCAS.
There is a model for about US$1500 and a cheaper one for about US$500.
Some people say that the cheaper one is of no use, so what is the go?
Our VFR airspace is becoming quite congested with local training aircraft and I am opting for another pair of eyes.

[KRviator]

I looked at these when I had the KR2 and I understood the cheaper one to simply show range and altitude, it didn't give you a quadrant in which to search...

The more exxy one gives you a quadrant (out of 8 I believe) plus range and altitude to maximise your chance of seeing the other traffic.

Of course, that only works if he's got a transponder, it's on Mode C and his encoder is accurate...

[c100driver]

There must also be something to trigger the transponder into replying like a SSR radar or a TCAS equiped aircraft. If you dont have either of those then unit will not work!

[triadic]

There must also be something to trigger the transponder into replying like a SSR radar or a TCAS equiped aircraft. If you dont have either of those then unit will not work!

My guess is that it would only work within range of a ground based radar facility or if an aircraft with operating TCAS is within range....?? Sydney or Melb area no prob... Tamworth or Broken Hill - I doubt it. In the USA this is not such a problem.

[ForkTailedDrKiller]

Jimshutt, you need to drop the "radar" off the title of this thread cause there is no radar in PCAS.

I have Zaon XRX (the dearer one) in the Bonza, but have had nothing to do with MRX (the cheaper one).

The XRX is a good bit of gear for the money, IMHO. It is generally effective in alerting potential conflicting traffic. As has been pointed out above it is a passive system and relies on either SSR to trigger the conflicting traffics transponder or another aircraft equipped with and active TCAS system. Therefore it is not of much use away from SSR coverage.

To use the XRX to greatest effect, I think it ideally should be connected to a moving map display such as Garmin 296 - 696. I also think it works best if connected into the aircrafts audio so that you get an audio alert of conflicting taffic. It would be a pity to have the gear and then hit something cause you didnt happen to look at it at the right time.

In the Bonza, it has a bit of a blind spot to the rear, but that is not a big issue for me as there are not too many aircraft that are going to rapidly overtake me from behind - that aren't equipped with their own TCAS.

In a mostly busy circuit traffic situation, you would have to play with getting the settings right so that it only alerted you to genuine conflict, otherwise it will drive you mad going off all the time and you will either ignore it or turn it off.

So, how good is it? Well .....

1) going into my favourite aerodrome (YCAB) I usually pick up all the bogies before I enter the circuit

2) it makes it easy to find Jaba in the Plastic Parrot when trying to formate on him!

Dr :8

[Jabawocky]

And strangely enough it often worked at low level up the Cape York region. Not sure how much radar there is so I assumed it was overhead TCAS.

Helped me play games on the Numero Uno Plastic Parrot on our last trip up north!:E

[Ovation]

FTDK wrote:

In the Bonza, it has a bit of a blind spot to the rear, but that is not a big issue for me as there are not too many aircraft that are going to rapidly overtake me from behind - that aren't equipped with their own TCAS.

That sounds like the Ovation GX2! :ok:

Since fitting the Avidyne TAS-610 I have a Monroy ATD-200 which has range (but no azimuth indication) if anyone's in the market for used one. It certainly gets your attention when there is nearby traffic. PM me if interested.

[ForkTailedDrKiller]

That sounds like the Ovation GX2! http://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/thumbs.gif

Now, now Ovation - I said "RAPIDLY OVERTAKE", not "slowly creep up on"!

Dr :8