To answer for myself: I don't. However, two weeks ago when flying to Losinj (LDLO) I had a rare opportunity not only to spot other aircraft but to take a picture (actually it was my passenger doing that).
you are right. not a common to see other aircraft. On the way back from Losinj we were cruising between Vienna city and Schwechat airport at FL 100 and there had seen several aircraft - nice to see A320 from above. But this is a bit unusual exactly as you suggested.
I forgot to list the aircrafts/airliners on pictures - maybe it's hard to see:
1. Quatar Airways
2. Easyjet
3. Croatia Airlines
4. DA20 Katana
Nice shots Emir. I relatively often spot other local flights in the area in the summer evenings, buzzing the city and such, but to see airliners like the photos above is rare.
The last occasion was during my extended IR navigation, enroute from Groningen->Antwerp at FL100 when Amsterdam called us up "LXN, Boeing 747 passing overhead. Expect turbulence" - I think it would be pretty cool pictures if I had had my camera ready :-)
Hmm, this depends on where you are. Around here I see a lot of aircraft, most of them after getting a position report on my PowerFLARM traffic monitor. It shows exact positions for ADS-B equipped aircraft, i.e. everything above 5.7 tons.
One of my very few shots is this:
He did not show up on TCAS so must have been at least 3000ft below me (I have it set up to show traffic +/- 3000ft).
Hmm, this depends on where you are. Around here I see a lot of aircraft, most of them after getting a position report on my PowerFLARM traffic monitor. It shows exact positions for ADS-B equipped aircraft, i.e. everything above 5.7 tons.
Does Powerflarm pick up just ADS-B (i.e. airliners) or does it also pick up the GPS lat/long/alt emitted by aircraft emitting Enhanced Mode S when pinged by SSR?
For example if you just put in a GTX330 and connect the standard GPS data stream to one of its RS232 inputs, it will radiate the whole lot in the Mode S Extended Squitter data packets. This is supposedly illegal for GA which is too small to qualify for Enhanced Mode S (we discussed this here already and I agree that prohibition is bollocks and should be ignored) but it does make you properly visible to anybody who is looking for that data. Any GA plane originating outside the EU and having Mode S will be radiating everything anyway...
I have a GTX330 which went in in 2005 and that installation ought to emit the lat/long if connected to a compatible GPS. Later firmware (done in response to the EU prohibition) had an option to block that but I never had the firmware updated.
OTOH I don't know of any way to see what is actually transmitted. ATC have no way of seeing the data anyway (in the UK).
I flew briefly with a FLARM receiver and never saw anything on it.
i.e. everything above 5.7 tons...
(Un)fortunately not everything. "Mine" does not yet transmit ADS-B and it will cost up to 50.000 Euros (that was the quote for another aircraft in our fleet with similar avionics from Honeywell) to upgrade. Therefore we wait till the last possible moment... (For Peter: If you think Garmin is expensive, try Honeywell instead ;-) )
And regarding the original question: We see a lot of aircraft around us here in Germany. At all levels. Sometimes so many that we have to switch the TCAS to the lowest range (6 NM) to declutter the screen, especially around Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin. Unfortunately our thick and curved windscreens make it almost impossible to get good photographs from other aircraft, so I gave up trying long ago.
Does Powerflarm pick up just ADS-B (i.e. airliners) or does it also pick up the GPS lat/long/alt emitted by aircraft emitting Enhanced Mode S when pinged by SSR?
I don't know, but according to:
Mode-S EHS is less common than ADS-B, so you'd unlikely gain much.
Do you happen to have a PDF copy of DO260?
If you want to see a lot of heavy metal, I can recommend the "Mike" (MIQ) departure of Augsburg, it goes straight through Munich airspace.
Mode-S EHS is less common than ADS-B, so you'd unlikely gain much.
That would suprise me, because anything with a TAS of > 250kt needs Enhanced Mode S, and that's been the case for close to 10 years. Basically all turboprops and bizjets will be radiating it. There will be some variations on what exactly goes out e.g. the autopilot preselect altitude may or may not, depending on your systems. A TBM won't be radiating that (KFC325 is prob99 not going to be outputting that) but anything with an "FMS" probably will.
How much this is relevant for "TCAS" purposes for light GA is another matter.... I think the Avidyne-type active TCAS is very effective, once you get away from < 1500ft where most of the non-TXP community flies.
Also most stuff radiating Enhanced Mode S will be flying in CAS most of the time.
I don't have DO260; sorry.
Interesting PDF. It does say
"A commercial ADS-B receiver is capable of receiving the Mode-S EHS information."
which suggests that Powerflarm ought to pick up EHS stuff. For some reason I always thought the data packets were the same; the only difference being that EHS needs to be pinged by SSR, whereas ADS-B transmits them all the time. Which begs the question of why one needs "ADS-B compatible" transponders for a lot of extra $$$.
That would suprise me, because anything with a TAS of > 250kt needs Enhanced Mode S
But I don't think it needs to implement the full feature set.
Lat/Lon is not a required parameter of an EHS installation.
You can receive any Mode-S transmission even with a cheap $20 USB TV dongle. The problem with receiving ELS and EHS transmissions (as opposed to ADS-B) is that the CRC is xor'd by the aircraft address. So you need to receive the all call reply to know that the aircraft is there, otherwise you can't check the CRC. All call replies are often transmitted relatively seldom.
Which begs the question of why one needs "ADS-B compatible" transponders for a lot of extra $$$.
The excuse is probably "paperwork". Hardware wise it's simple, another RS232 interface to interface with the GPS ^WFMS and a few lines more firmware code in the transponder microprocessor.
