Aircraft Tracking Equipment

[starflex fixer]

Hi All

As a keen private flyer, I spend quite a high amount of my time in open FIR with little or no ATC provided tracking.

With this in mind, I have been looking into some add-on portable tracking kits - has anybody used these before can anyone give any feedback re Performance vs Cost etc?

SFF

[S-Works]

Tracking for what? If you are concerned about crashing and not being found take an EPIRB with you. I carry one on every flight.

[Jan Olieslagers]

OTOH if you wish to plot your flights on a map - recommended! brings satisfaction and motivation! for me, at least - then a cheapo GPS tracker will do the job.

[IO540]

These people (http://www.sartech.co.uk/) do various handheld EPIRB beacons, and service them too.

If you buy one, get a 121.50MHz + 406MHz type, and if you can spend the bit extra, get the GPS version.

These tend to be carried on flights over water, though you should then be carrying a life raft as well :)

[starflex fixer]

Thanks guys

There are a few units around, so I am told that plot your course onto a PC based piece of software, this lets you review where you have been, but also I am told that the units are programmable to send alerts to stred numbers for things such as SOS???

I think these units work with GPS - I assume much cheaper than that of a specialist SAR beacon?

SFF

[IO540]

An emergency beacon won't do that.

If you want to plot your track on a PC, you need a handheld GPS (hundreds of models around) which has a USB interface, and you need some suitable software on the PC (e.g. Navbox) which explicitly supports that GPS for the purpose of a track upload, from the GPS to the PC.

[Jan Olieslagers]

USB is one option, I've also known GPS trackers that wrote on an SD-card you had to transfer to a PC.

But it would be nice for the TS to give us some clue as to what is to be achieved.

[starflex fixer]

I have been looking at a system on sale from transair, called spider tracks - basically want something like that (ideally cheaper!!)

[IO540]

I don't see the point of that, given that a proper GPS will store a track and can be used for ...... wait for it ........... navigation too ;)

[rjtjrt]

Starflex
You are probably thinking of Spot Tracker.
I have used one in Australia and very good. It is not perfect at getting a tracking message out every 10 minutes but pretty good at approximately each 10 mins.
Small and not too expensive. You need to add the tracking option to basic service to get tracking.
As it is 10 min interval, the record of your ntrack on the web page is straight line between points, not your curved/?meandering flightpath.
Your family can track your progress with an about 15min delay.

See SPOT SATELLITE MESSENGER :: HOME PAGE (http://www.findmespot.eu/en/)

Hope this helps
John
PS I have no experience of Spidertracks but hear they are also vey good, but more expensive.

[starflex fixer]

Thanks IO540 - I understand your comments re GPS, and although the aircraft I fly has its own GPS fitted - your family cannot see this when you are flying, and also (sad as it may be) you cant look at it days or months after the even to see what you've done!!

rjtrjt - thanks, have looked and trialled spot, but didn't find it that good - I am willing to outlay the £1000 for Spidertracks but really wanted to get some views on it!

[cumulusrider]

Hi You are describing a device like the ew microrecorder. Built in GPS, built in battery or 12v supply, records GPS track and pressure altitude. plugs via a usb lead into your computer etc 480+ vat EW microRecorder (http://www.ewavionics.com/products/microRecorder/microRecorder.html)
Used by by glider pilots and will record you flight in a secure igc. file.
programs such as SeeYou will allow you to view the flight in detail. They can provide terrain airspace etc so you can see just how close you came to busting the London TMA.:)
I have no link with the company apart from being an occasional user of their products

[dublinpilot]

I think he's looking for something that also transmits your position while in flight, so that those on the ground can track the position while the aircraft is still in the air.

Most GPS systems will log the flight for you, but that's not available to anyone on the ground until after you've landed.

[gyrotyro]

I use an app from this company which goes on to my iphone and can then be followed by anyone with access to a computer.

iBCNU iPhone APRS App - ibcnu.us - mobile APRS application (http://ibcnu.us/)

I use it in aircraft, cars, mountain bikes and walking. It costs a couple of dollars to download the app.

Cheap tracking. It only works where there is a phone signal but pretty good though.

The tracker can be followed on this site:

Google Maps APRS (http://aprs.fi/)

Go to "APRS stations currently moving" to see people on the move. Note that there are dozens of ships using it at sea.

[IO540]

I think in Europe the only way to do real time tracking of ad-hoc VFR traffic is using some kind of satellite phone.

I have played with these (Thuraya) and this would be easy enough - either with SMS or with dial-up internet access, or even with their "GPRS" service, when it works (which is not very often). Most professionals probably use Iridium, which is very slow but probably less unreliable.

An Iphone could only send SMS which would work well only at low levels; say below 2000ft. Actually an Iphone (my GF has an Iphone 4) is not a very good phone if you look at the signal level required for it to work usefully.

Is anyone offering a different tracking service e.g. via shortwave?

For IFR traffic on a Eurocontrol flight plan, with the additional requirement AFAIK of being largely in CAS, there is a flight monitoring facility provided by Eurocontrol, which is accessible via EuroFPL (http://www.eurofpl.eu) on flight plans filed via them, and this works great.

[jkveenstra]

I use "I got U (http://www.i-gotu.com/)" to track my flights. the device costs around 50 euro and records the heights as well and is quite acurate. I beleive it runs approx. 6 hours.

I mainly used it during my training and posted it on my blog (example (http://www.flightlog.nl/?p=132)).

You can plot the GPX output in Google Earth, which gives you an 3D plot of your route as well.

Not shure weather you are looking for this.

[BJB10]

Instamapper.com
Freebie for iPhone
I've used it for some time now
Get o2 10 quid monthly pay as you go for the unlimited web access - that's your iPhone isp
You will need unlimited access as the iPhone is updating your position on a regular basis
Bjb10

[Morrisman1]

The organisation I am training with uses spidertracks for aircraft tracking. The unit just plugs in and pings off every three minutes to the satellites. Back at base they have a computer showing the aircraft locations, altitude, heading and groundspeed. You can have that information overlayed on a VNC for airspace considerations.

The system takes the guesswork out of search and rescue if the worst happens, They know your location within 3 minutes and the new generation unit you can tell manually to ping an SOS off so it will come up as an alert on the screen, you would do that if you had an emergency so the latest location would be available to the searchers.

As with anything in aviation, the system is not cheap but it cant really be beat. The unit just plugs in to the aux power on the aircraft dashboard so if you have one unit you can put it in another plane with no hassles.

[2high2fastagain]

From your comment it seems to me that you might be worried about hitting things in open FIR. If so, have you considered the collision avoidance toys such as the Zaon XRX? These tools pick up transponding traffic that might be close (with varying degrees of accuracy). From the limited exposure I've had to tracking devices, I thought they only picked up aircraft who beamed out ADS-B or Mode S. As these are mainly airliners, they would be quite tricky to inadvertently hit, as they will be most likely be tonking along in an airway, going much faster than you, and have TCAS onboard. ;-)