Portable ADS-B Solutions -- Moment of Truth!

[bnicolette]

Check this out: Foreflight ROCKS!!!

[bnicolette]

I didn't know that this was part of Foreflight but we now have audio alerts as well as visual alerts for traffic!!  Time to get a splitter so I can have the 396 and the iPad plugged into intercom system.

I just asked them about this last month and voila!!  I am SO impressed with them.  

They are making it hard to justify spending multiple 10's of thousands on "installed equipment" especially when updates are coming at us SO fast and they're FREE!!!!

 

[Marauder]

Well, I've taken the leap... Have a 250 mile trip tomorrow and will give you an update on the GDL-39 I purchased. Playing around with it last night and it looks like it has some nice features. This was taken on the ground:

[carusoam]

Chris,

You were getting traffic data while you were on the ground?

Do you get weather on the ground as well?

I see the red X over the antenna, and a blue indication for what looks like traffic?

Best regards,

-a-

[Piloto]

Well, I've taken the leap... Have a 250 mile trip tomorrow and will give you an update on the GDL-39 I purchased. Playing around with it last night and it looks like it has some nice features. This was taken on the ground:

There appears to be an offset on traffic relative position to the own aircraft. On the map on the left close traffic (N8256Y) appears to be at about 2nm while on the traffic display on the right it appears to be at about 10nm. How is relative altitude determined. All traffic report baro altitude.

 

José 

[bnicolette]

Well, I've taken the leap... Have a 250 mile trip tomorrow and will give you an update on the GDL-39 I purchased. Playing around with it last night and it looks like it has some nice features. This was taken on the ground:

 

Very nice Chris!!  How did the trip go?  Just need some ADS-B out now and you'll be all set.  I have my iPad plugged into my intercom so I will hear all the audio alerts (when they become active again) through Foreflight.  Hopefully Aspen will hook you up soon.  I have noticed the traffic to be extremely accurate both in altitude and location.

[Marauder]

Chris,

You were getting traffic data while you were on the ground?

Do you get weather on the ground as well?

I see the red X over the antenna, and a blue indication for what looks like traffic?

Best regards,

-a-

Hi Anthony -- definitely traffic on the ground. Picked up a lot of 1090 airline traffic but the guy at 8200' is an UAT 978 early ADS-B adopter. Weather was not obtainable on the ground.

[Marauder]

There appears to be an offset on traffic relative position to the own aircraft. On the map on the left close traffic (N8256Y) appears to be at about 2nm while on the traffic display on the right it appears to be at about 10nm. How is relative altitude determined. All traffic report baro altitude.

José

Jose -- I believe since it is using a GPS to determine my altitude (384' in the upper left hand corner), it is relative to that altitude. Which would make sense. I'm at 384' the plane is at 8200' above me which would put him at 8500' (flying westbound VFR).

[Marauder]

Very nice Chris!! How did the trip go? Just need some ADS-B out now and you'll be all set. I have my iPad plugged into my intercom so I will hear all the audio alerts (when they become active again) through Foreflight. Hopefully Aspen will hook you up soon. I have noticed the traffic to be extremely accurate both in altitude and location.

It went great up the point where I realized I was going to get stuck there for a week due to freezing rain, icing and a few other things Mother Nature had in the making.

I had problems getting the GDL to pair with both my Nexus and iPad 2 on the ground before leaving. Ended up pairing again. The Bluetooth signal kept dropping. Once I re-paired, it worked great.

Absolutely need an "out" signal for traffic. Saw lots of airline traffic and did pick up some smaller stuff but I'm sure it was because of the parasite effect.

Here is a picture of what I saw in flight:

Where the power of the GDL is the weather uploads. All of the weather stations shown were uploaded. Really made it nice to see the changes in the weather as I was flying along.

[Marauder]

Ok, ADS-B fans, need some guidance on something I am seeing. I drove a nice 400 mile trip today and had my trusty, if not rusty, iPad 2, Garmin Pilot and GDL-39 with me.

Since I was ground based, I did not expect to see any ground to ground reception of ADS-B signal in my car. In fact, I did pick up some signal when I was in the hills of Pennsylvania. It didn't last long, perhaps a minute or so.

While driving, I saw a lot of airline traffic and the occasional UAT guy. What I didn't expect to see was updates to my weather on FIS-B. But I did get updates. They weren't "live" updates, some being an hour or so old, but they certainly updated while I was driving. Any idea how that happened? It can't be from the very short ADS-B reception, could it?

Oh, Brett -- I think I saw you coming into Wilmington around 5 something on my Garmin Pilot in the Falcon. I was just getting to the area and think it was your N number that popped up. Were you in the area then?

[carusoam]

When going across tall bridges, I have received partial weather updates on the iPad 1 and SkyRadar. Not enough to be useful, I don't think.

I did this experiment a year ago hoping to get decent weather info while driving X-country.

In the meantime, the iPhone weather has improved significantly...

We're you by chance, receiving weather updates through a cell connection?

Best regards,

-a-

[Marauder]

When going across tall bridges, I have received partial weather updates on the iPad 1 and SkyRadar. Not enough to be useful, I don't think.

I did this experiment a year ago hoping to get decent weather info while driving X-country.

In the meantime, the iPhone weather has improved significantly...

We're you by chance, receiving weather updates through a cell connection?

Best regards,

-a-

The iPad 2 I own is a WiFi only unit and I have the WiFi off when using the GDL-39. I suspect a couple of scenarios and either may have happened. The first being that when I did see signal for a very short period, that it was enough time for a data burst download of the weather. The other scenario may be that when I saw UAT airplanes, I got a download from them. It was just strange to see a weather update despite not being able to consistently see the ADS-B signal.

[bnicolette]

Oh, Brett -- I think I saw you coming into Wilmington around 5 something on my Garmin Pilot in the Falcon. I was just getting to the area and think it was your N number that popped up. Were you in the area then?

 

Yep that was me bud.  Long day.  Up at 3am, grab a limo out of ILG at 4:15am to PHL.  Airline to PBI.  Falcon to PBI-APF-BOS-ILG.  And top that off with a 4 hour drive home.  Yikes.

[Marauder]

Yep that was me bud. Long day. Up at 3am, grab a limo out of ILG at 4:15am to PHL. Airline to PBI. Falcon to PBI-APF-BOS-ILG. And top that off with a 4 hour drive home. Yikes.

I feel for you man! If you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to get home and return to the ILG area quickly, let me know. You certainly are welcome to take my plane out and back. A four hour car drive is on the edge of my tolerance after a long day of working.

[Marauder]

Trying to learn more about the Garmin pilot traffic. Can anyone explain to me what a "non-threatening, nondirectional traffic" at 13,600 feet is in this photo?

[Piloto]

Wow!! Must be that B747 that shows its shadow to your left. No picture? Oh well.

[Marauder]

Wow!! Must be that B747 that shows its shadow to your left. No picture? Oh well.

This "non-threatening, non-directional" threat was interesting. It stayed where it was for some time and never moved. At first, I thought it was a helicopter. But who in a helicopter would stay 13.5k for 10 minutes and never move? Anyone have a clue what it might be? Thought also it might be a weather balloon, but don't they move as well? What also was interesting was that it was very close to the TK 502 route.

[fantom]

Anyone have a clue what it might be?

 

You, and the rest of us, are being watched.

[Marauder]

Quick update. I have been flying with the GDL-39 for a few months now. Really like the weather updates, really wish traffic was a bit more robust.

 

Question for you ADS-Bers... One of the most frustrating things I never liked about flying is the aggravation of trying to pick up the ATIS/AWOS early enough inbound. Do you think they will ever upload the full ATIS/AWOS information in text format and make it available like the METARs and TAFs?

[bnicolette]

 

Question for you ADS-Bers... One of the most frustrating things I never liked about flying is the aggravation of trying to pick up the ATIS/AWOS early enough inbound. Do you think they will ever upload the full ATIS/AWOS information in text format and make it available like the METARs and TAFs?

 

You are referring to D-ATIS and it is a pay service through Arinc at the moment.  I don't see that being an option we are going to get through ADS-B.

[Marauder]

You are referring to D-ATIS and it is a pay service through Arinc at the moment.  I don't see that being an option we are going to get through ADS-B.

 

Bummer... Is the D-ATIS uploaded through a satellite?

[bnicolette]

Bummer... Is the D-ATIS uploaded through a satellite?

 

We get it through both VHF & Satellite.  It's called AFIS and we manipulate it through our FMS.

[Piloto]

You are referring to D-ATIS and it is a pay service through Arinc at the moment.  I don't see that being an option we are going to get through ADS-B.

You can get all the destination airport WX on the ground or in the air via XM\WX in plain English text. In addition you get the FBOs frequencies, operating hours and services.

 

José 

[Marauder]

You can get all the destination airport WX on the ground or in the air via XMWX in plain English text. In addition you get the FBOs frequencies, operating hours and services.

José

What I am looking for José is the ability to say I have information "C", "X" or whatever current AWOS is available. You know, the good stuff, like the last minute thing they put on the recording that didn't make it to a NOTAM.

[Marauder]

I get you ADS-B and other "weather" providers give us METARs and TAFs ... but not ATIS ... which is the source of runway/ approach in use, taxiway closings and other pertinent information. So even though you may use Stratus/ Foreflight for weather ... You still SHOULD listen to ATIS or have it in text form.

Which brings other perplexing questions! How does ATC know to call you right when you try to "sneak away" and listen to ATIS on comm 2? How do they know to always loudly transmit on the other radio right in the same place - so you have to listen to it three times to hear that one bit of information you missed? And how do they know to call you right after you just took that big bite off your sandwich?

EXACTLY! I bet there would a 25% reduction in radio chatter from the "sorry, can you repeat that? We were picking up the ATIS" stuff"

You would think it would be the next logical step in this technology evolution. If it is already available as Brett says, why not bundle it in for us?

Sent using Tapatalk