All I was getting at is that at typical UK GA levels, below Class A, you can get whatever wx website you fancy, on your 3G/4G smartphone.
And “every” pilot has a phone, and every pilot has a favourite wx website(s).
So delivering wx data over some other channel is just yet another solution looking for a problem that has already been adequately solved.
What has not been solved is wx etc data delivery in Europe to panel mounted (i.e. certified) products. This has existed for a long time (Avidyne, Garmin and others) but the price tag is high.
Sure 3G/4G is not reliable but it probably works “often enough”. I tend to find that on say a 5hr flight, say FL150, I can get wx data several times on that flight, and continuously in the Alpine region, so my Thuraya satphone has got very little use (and it is only about 75% reliable). I have still installed the ADL150 because that will give me georeferenced wx radar around my position, and (once they fix the android app) along the GPS-loaded route.
The UK UAT project is a joint venture between Uavionix, Skydemon and NATS. Uavionix want to sell their boxes, SD wants to sell their software, and NATS want to see as much traffic as they can 
Peter wrote:
So delivering wx data over some other channel is just yet another solution looking for a problem that has already been adequately solved.
That’s very true. It’s just a shame that wx is a key feature of the Lynx (which is where this thread started). The TAS side of things looks great, but it would annoy me that I couldn’t access all the other features.
Peter wrote:
The UK UAT project is a joint venture between Uavionix, Skydemon and NATS. Uavionix want to sell their boxes, SD wants to sell their software, and NATS want to see as much traffic as they can
Let’s hope they get a move on then!!
Last year, JasonC wrote in this thread
achimha wrote:
The more often you repeat it, the less true it becomes. ADS-B Out coverage is constantly growing. I have an ADS-B In display and have been observing it for several years now.
I agree. It is clearly getting more common in low level aircraft. Most people doing new avionics installations are adding ADS-B out as it is relatively simple.
and last Friday, on a flight mostly below cloud-base from Essex to the Stewartry of Kirkcudbrightshire, I was pleasantly surprised to note that roughly half of the GA which I heard on the wireless was also squittering ADSB.
Of course that kind of anecdote isn’t evidence, weekend GA may be different, and there may have been dozens of unseen aircraft flying below radar and maintaining radio silence. But if a cheap PAW gizmo and antenna sitting on the rear cargo deck (I hate portable cr@p on the glare shield) can detect that much traffic, I think it’s no longer correct to say that “almost nobody” is broadcasting ADSB-out.
Jacko wrote:
But if a cheap PAW gizmo and antenna sitting on the rear cargo deck (I hate portable cr@p on the glare shield) can detect that much traffic, I think it’s no longer correct to say that “almost nobody” is broadcasting ADSB-out.
Fair point (especially the bit about portable cr*p on the glare shield). So what’s your cheap PAW gizmo of choice…?
Ah sorry, you mean Pilot Aware…
Yes, sorry, it’s a ready-assembled Pilot Aware system, with the standard internal 1090 MHz (ADSB) antenna shortened to about 7 cm (1/4 wavelength). It runs off a 22 Ah RAVpower USB battery which seems to last a bit more than 10 hours – by which time I also need re-charging.
I suspect that the cargo deck of a Maule isn’t the best location for the proprietary PAW antenna, (for PAW direct and rebroadcast glider traffic), but ADSB signals are so strong that the Raspberry Pi could probably receive them with a bit of wet string.
on a flight mostly below cloud-base from Essex to the Stewartry of Kirkcudbrightshire, I was pleasantly surprised to note that roughly half of the GA which I heard on the wireless was also squittering ADSB.
it’s a ready-assembled Pilot Aware system
That’s great news but I bet most of those emissions would be invisible on a certified ADS-B IN box, such as the Lynx. The GA community is just not spending that much money on the certified ADS-B OUT installations which are necessary to show on panel mounted boxes.
I’m not sure how many, were SIL=0, or who would know the percentage of SIL=3 installations in the UK. Maybe NATS or Flightradar24 has those data.
The only aircraft which came closer to me than 1 mile and 500 ft on Friday was a light twin descending OCAS through broken cloud just north of Manchester. I can’t recall the registration, but I imagine that kind of machine has a WAAS GPS and SIL=3. Of course you’d have detected it just as well with a £10k TAS installation as with my 200 quid portable system.
Diverging yet further from the topic, I think that as aviation consumers we’re going to have to come to terms with the interconnection of certified and uncertified avionics. For instance, a GTN650 is a royal pain to use until it is paired by Bluetooth with an iPad or Android tablet – or indeed to a headset for voice commands.
In the case of ADSB, I’d be interested to know whether (uncertified) GDL39 traffic data is forwarded by Garmin Pilot to a GTN box so as to provide audible alerts – in other words, whether the connection is 2-way for traffic. Maybe @Jason knows, because I think he has a GDL39.
Step 2 of the Skydemon/uAvionix expérimental announced : 2 new UAT transmitters par Redhill et Goodwood.
It works well across the south now.
