Hi Tony,
I agree, it would be nice to have a general coverage symbol (similar to how SD advises that weather data is being received) or even some sort of audio notificationsm, but we can only work
with what the display providers will allow - we can’t force them if they aren’t willing.
Considering the time it has taken to get SkyDemon to accept the principle of Ground Station uplink and display them as Masts - instead of reporting them as aircraft on the ground with associated warnings, I think the recent developments are to be commended in the circumstances! IIRC it was Tim in the early days who insisted that we add the option to allow Display of Ground Stations to be disabled because he wasn’t convinced of their reliability or benefits. Even now SD carries a warning requiring the
user to accept responsibility for using certain aspects of PAW with SD before allowing connection.
In your scenario, you could easily check for Ground Station locations during pre-flight planning on for example Glidertracker (
http://Glidertracker.org )to give you an idea of likely coverage (the PW Stations are easy to differentiate from ‘pure’ OGN sites as the PW ones have dual naming for the OGN and PW sides). Coverage (both OGN and P3i) can also be checked over recent or longer periods using the OGN Range maps on
https://ognrange.glidernet.org In flight, the Ground Station Masts will appear on screen and should be obvious even when just glancing at the screen to check for traffic or to confirm you are still on track.
Alternatively, if you also run PilotAware Radar or Aircrew as a separate traffic device, they are clearly reported.
I have high hopes that we can improve things further as we move forward - especially with further data uplink, but we need to progress carefully and take the display system developers with us by demonstrating that the uplinks are dependable and reliable and convincing them of the benefits of using our data. Trying to force the issue simply doesn’t work.
Best Regards
Peter