a certified TAS system might have prevented one (in the circuit at Shoreham).
The RAF didn’t appear to have the same view when they spent something of the order of £3M fitting their Grob fleet with TA605 boxes (and a SN3500 to display the traffic on) after their mid-air.
True, TAS might have saved two out of seven. However, the RAF is not always justly accused of spending our money wisely and TAS can’t detect the gliders and microdoodles which don’t have transponders – or indeed the hundreds of GA pilots who have been persuaded by our dear safety regulator to pull the relevant circuit-breaker.
The solution to the first problem is a liberal helping of “free cheese” with ADSB. The second problem requires intelligent airspace de-cluttering and a well thought-out policy of more carrot and less stick from the flatfoots who deal with infringements. So the odds are against it.
@Steve6443 wrote:
Bearing in mind I am connecting a Flarm Mouse to a PAW and this will show me ADS-B, Flarm and Mode A / C / S warnings for less than 20% of that cost, that is a lot of cash would could otherwise be spent on flying for little reward so we scrapped that idea…..
What is PAW ?
Could we know more about LX Nav and their products ?
PowerMouse, FlarmMouse… Sounds interesting. What kind of installation ? Which antenna ? Where do you source the power from ? How well does it work ?
PAW (Pilotaware) is another closed source and proprietary collision avoidance system. Difference between Flarm based devices and PAW is that PAW is funded trough yearly subscription fees and Flarm by a huge license fee hidden in ridiculous price of Flarm based units. There is a caveat though in Flarm’s model as they enforce periodic firmware updates and this way are free to declare any chosen generation of their devices obsolete and at the same time generate a revenue stream from sale of “supported” devices to users who frankly speaking would have no other choice.
One important point here: Flarm never promised to make their protocol public, so in a way, from the very beginning we knew what we were dealing with. According to my memory people behind PAW did promise to make their system open. Correct me if I’m wrong here pls.
Peter wrote:
The RAF didn’t appear to have the same view when they spent something of the order of £3M fitting their Grob fleet with TA605 boxes (and a SN3500 to display the traffic on) after their mid-air.
To be fair, they did install FLARM as well. The Tucano’s and the BBMF also have FLARM…
Steve6443 wrote:
I was looking to get one installed in our Cirrus to allow us to spot Flarm equipped gliders / aircraft plus ADS-B equipped aircraft as well as giving proximity warnings for Mode C / S aircraft.Note that the TRX-1500A does not detect mode A/C targets. Their web site is misleading as they talk about “transponding” aircraft but only mean mode S. I became suspicious as the was never any reference to transponder modes in their documentation — neither to “mode S” nor “mode A/C/S” so I wrote and asked them. Mode S only.
anyone here using PAW and a FLARM mouse would be very interesed in real world feedback ideally in connection with SD thanks
Out of interest, right now the OGN (=Flarm) tracker system is showing a pair of aircraft over northern England doing 200kt+ at 20000 feet, received by e.g. a groundstation at Cambridge 174km away. Pretty good for 10mW and suggests that those who “never see Flarm targets” maybe need a better antenna! I presume these are the RAF Tucanos.
Most of the other blue (power) targets on there are the RAF Grobs. Very few PAW targets are ever shown which makes me a bit sceptical about the actual utilisation of that system, despite apparently 1500 units sold).
http://live.glidernet.org/#c=53.06144,-0.35008&z=8&s=1&u=i
Alan
I use a PAW but not in connection with Flarm mounse. Was it the connection with Flarm that you were really interested in?
To be fair, they did install FLARM as well. The Tucano’s and the BBMF also have FLARM…
How did the RAF integrate FLARM into their cockpits? How was the audio connected up?
Note that the TRX-1500A does not detect mode A/C targets. Their web site is misleading as they talk about “transponding” aircraft but only mean mode S. I became suspicious as the was never any reference to transponder modes in their documentation — neither to “mode S” nor “mode A/C/S” so I wrote and asked them. Mode S only.
Does it show azimuth on Mode S targets?
