One minor cautionary tale about Powerflarm type systems.
Yesterday I had the excitement/privilege of flying over
Central London 9 times at around 900ft passing close to
and below(!!) the Shard, the Olympic stadium, etc on a
NE/SW course turning at LAM and OCK. The plane was G-ENVR
belonging to the Natural Environment Research Council and
housed in my hangar. It was stuffed full of scientific kit
to measure various pollutants, but also has very
sophisticated avionics which make a big fuss when we got
too close to the scenery or any other transponder equipped
plane got anywhere near us ( and there were police and
medical helicopters all over the place quite apart from
multiple aircraft climbing out of London City airport).
Our turning point at LAM meant that we were more or less
running down the active runway at Stapleford and on the
third time around they had an unpleasant surprise when a
small plane taking off almost had us from below without
setting off any alarm!
The message is that it is possibly too easy to
come to rely on a system covering less than 100% and
forget the common sense means of avoiding collisions.
Regards, David Joyce, G-XSDJ
Frans Veldman <frans@privatepilots.nl> wrote:
><frans@privatepilots.nl>
>
> On 06/25/2013 01:01 PM, David Watts wrote:
>> <dg.watts@talktalk.net>
>>
>> Skydemon had the Powerflarm connected to an iPad through
>>a Butterfly
>> Connect and displaying on a large TV screen at Aero Expo
>>and very
>> impressive it was too, showing all the aircraft in the
>>vicinity that
>> were transponding.
>
> Ok, that sounds cool!
>
>> I came straight home and bought a Butterfly
>> Connect.
>
> Have you tried switching off the internal GPS, bad elf,
>or other sources
> and see whether the SkyDemon actually uses the GPS info
>from the Powerflarm?
>
>> As to the GPS signal I personally think the best option
>>for a wifi
>> iPad is the plug in Bad Elf which gets its power from
>>the iPad
>
> I don't like this option because it means more wires,
>and all the
> GPS-antenna's want to be placed at the best position but
>half a meter
> away from other GPS antenna's, and since I'm operating
>an Europa and not
> a 747 it becomes complicated to place all these
>antenna's according to
> the manufacturers recommendations.
> So I really hope that the iPad can get all its
>information out of the
> wifi signal.
>
>> As for the Garrecht I have no experience other than what
>>I have
>> read.
>
> It is a brick with no display but just a bunch of
>antenna's, it seems to
> produce exactly the same information as the powerflarm
>and interfaces
> with all the displays, connects and other gadgets. I
>think I will mount
> it behind the D-panel where it has the least
>interference from
> engine/instrument panel and the best overall view of the
>sky. And since
> it broadcasts its information via wifi I only need to
>provide power to
> it (and run the audio cable to the headset plugs).
>
> Thanks,
>Frans
>
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