http://www.openflarm.co.uk is an interesting project. With a 50 pound price tag and ability to detect legacy flarm transmitters those devices might gain popularity and consequently critical mass to become an effective short range traffic warning tool.
That OpenFLARM looks cool. I hope it becomes a hit. But using only a pad to show other planes doesn’t look very effective as a warning system to me. The “original” FLARM with it’s super simple display (if it even can be called a display), mounted on top of the panel, works just fine. A pad will give you better situational awareness I guess, but it’s not obvious to me that there is a need for that situational awareness. In a crowded circuit, discipline is what’s needed. If people start to use FLARM, I can easily see they will start to fly circles around each other, and using way too large separation.
Has FLARM penetration in the powered community increased in the last few years?
I haven’t seen any relevant new products for powered GA and especially no integration into panel mounted avionics. The traffic data used by panel mounts is a confidential protocol.
Peter wrote:
Has FLARM penetration in the powered community increased in the last few years?
Not that I have seen. Maybe this Open FLARM will change it?
Peter wrote:
no integration into panel mounted avionics
Powerflarm sends data out using the Garmin TIS protocol, which can be displayed on any number of devices.
All the guys I know who fly gliders have one, at least the mobile devices with a battery pack….Enough so that I see most of them, and if there are groups at least one of them has one…
But what’s perfect anyway….
I bought a PowerFLARM after scaring myself coming close to gliders a couple of times. I find it works really well – since I bought it I haven’t spotted a glider which wasn’t on FLARM.
Peter wrote:
I haven’t seen any relevant new products for powered GA and especially no integration into panel mounted avionics
I recently did a little research on collision detection devices which would be compatible with Aspen PFD. Results? TRX-1500A was the only that made it to my short list.But since it doesn’t detect Mode-C targets I gave up altogether. Maybe someone here can advise me an alternative solution?
Peter wrote:
The traffic data used by panel mounts is a confidential protocol.
That’s why I’m enthusiastic about Openflarm. ASAIK this will be the only one system having both bottom low price and open protocol.
But since it doesn’t detect Mode-C targets
When one flies with a system that does detect Mode C and shows the direction one realises there is so much flying out there which one never sees, and very often avoidance needs to be done based on the information from the system. On a 3hr flight yesterday, VFR, I had to do that maybe 5x, with most of them never spotted, and that was mostly flying under a “traffic service” (in the UK this is just traffic info, with no avoidance vectors supplied).
And installing a FLARM box will give you a very small part of the picture, only. The vast majority of traffic is either invisible to any system or it is Mode A/C. Mode S isn’t relevant to any traffic detection system AFAIK. I guess the percentages change near gliding sites etc.
If FLARM or ADS-B IN could be integrated into my Avidyne TAS605 system, for less than a few k, I would buy it tomorrow. But I am not going to fly with another “box” velcroed somewhere. I did once have a FLARM box on loan for about 6 months and it didn’t pick up a single target. But then I don’t overfly gliding sites shown on the map.
Detecting Mode A/C is by far the biggest priority in flying but there is nothing that works under the ~10k price bracket. I think there could be but for some reason nobody is working on an improved version of the ZAON box which had a “sort of” directional capability and which sometimes actually worked…
That’s why I’m enthusiastic about Openflarm
My comment about confidential protocols was the ability to feed the data into one’s existing panel mounted avionics, which is what most people want. They don’t want extra boxes around the cockpit either. Traditionally this feed was via ARINC429.
I think jwoollard’s solution uses RS232 and that is a great option. My MFD would take traffic only in ARINC429 and I think that is true for most avionics. Maybe someone in the business knows how far this capability exists?
Peter wrote:
And installing a FLARM box will give you a very small part of the picture, only.
Well, it depends how many people will spend 50 pounds and “velcro” this little box in their aircraft. If it would be a significant % of GA felt, then the situation will be entirely different.
Besides you might be willing to turn off your transponder while flying through some airspace and at the same time leave your Openflarm ON. What would you ay about this use case?
