The UK industry, from CAA and NATS to alphabet organisations, are working together to get on the market a very cheap, very light, battery powered ADSB-Out box. SkyDemon is also helping with an ADS-R trial, which currently covers a small part of Southern England around their HQ.
The combination may well result in a universally available ADS-B/ADS-R system requiring very little investment in money or weight, and no reliance on aircraft systems.
I am pinning my hopes on that.
Wasn’t there also a problem that if every glider, drone and GA aircraft started radiating ADS-B on 1090 MHz, the frequency would be overloaded? I think I read a statement like this in connection with the US system which uses 978 MHz in addition for ADS-B out of aircraft that never fly above 18’000 ft.
I believe that that is a substantial part of the trial.
Peter wrote:
(much of which absolutely wants to be invisible)
Any data to support that many are flying around with transponders intentionally turned off? I read that over and over on this forum (especially from UK pilots) but I have not seen any hard evidence, either how prevalent it is or where (i.e. UK vs elsewhere). As far as I can tell, it’s just hearsay.
Some UK pilots with TAS seem to see it much more than others.
I fly about 250 hours per year, much of it in the SE of England and much of it with TAS and I have never noticed this phenomenon.
Peter wrote:
Also if you developed a box which did ADS-B IN and output RS232 or ARINC429 data which can be fed into a GTN, IFD etc box, you would have to advertise it “for experimental aircraft only” with a big smiley after it, and most owners would be way too scared to touch it even if the installation was trivial.
I think your statement is overly pessimistic. What about this TRX-1500A ? Note the EASA minor change approval.
Agree on your Mode C comment, which this does not have.
My point, though, is that if a) a device were on the market at a price below ca. $1500 installed and b) the regulators were motivated enough to smooth approval on the grounds of improved safety, then there would be little resistance to fixed installation in nearly all SEP/MEP GA aircraft. There are likely 2 user populations here: those like yourself that don’t want any more wires and batteries (read portables) which my comments above are toward, and the lower end SEP/VLA/gliders that are quite happy with and/or require a minimum cost portable solution.
I don’t think mandatory regulation would be necessary. Sure, there will always be those who either disagree or are just too cheap to save their own skins. But laws won’t change that or achieve 100% compliance. If they did, all the jails would be empty. I think most GA operators would see the value and benefit without coercion.
Timothy wrote:
I am pinning my hopes on that.
Think you might get your issues with Avidyne resolved quicker than see this reach fruition, I’m afraid – after all, the trials started in 2015, were deemed successful in 2016…..
The TRX1500 looks good and it must have been “certified” in some way if not actually TSOd (so may not be usable for an N-reg). However they are merging only the two easy kinds of traffic: both FLARM and ADS-B give you an accurate 3D position.
Now you need to do something about Mode C/S and merge that, which is less than trivial because you have to use the 24-bit ID (from memory – see the previous threads on traffic merging) to resolve multiple appearances of the same target.
In the UK, and I suspect over most of Europe, the TRX1500 would show virtually zero traffic.
Regarding people flying non-visible, I speak to quite a lot of them 
And I visually acquire a huge amount of traffic which is normal GA SEPs and it is not showing up on TCAS despite being close. There is also this thread which has a German pilot explaining his reasons. The FR24 concern is widespread too.
You’d be surprised, my FLARM device picks up quite a bit of traffic in the UK. Sadly, it’s not a lot of use in the visual circuit where the risk is highest but enroute and particularly in glider chokepoints, it’s very useful. Also, more and more aircraft are emitting ADS-B. Not enough to rely on it, but enough that it’s useful.
Maybe there is more awareness. About 3 years ago I had a FLARM receiver on loan for about 6 months and it beeped only maybe a couple of times.
