OGN-PilotAware Uplink progress. July 2017.
Last December PilotAware joined with the OGN to enhance the OGN Network so that aircraft equipped with PilotAware units can see gliders equipped with FLARM or OGN trackers. This has been done to increase safety between powered aircraft and gliders. By April 4 existing OGN sites had been upgraded to OGN-R sites. These are at Bidford, Shennington, Husbands Bosworth and Corby (Stoke). In addition, a new site was introduced at Wellesbourne Airfield.
The trial was very successful and now PilotAware equipped aircraft flying in the midlands are able to be alerted of gliders in their area. By going to the Open Glider website at
http://ognrange.onglide.com and in the 'Show All, Choose' box insert PW% you will after resizing the screen see the extent of the OGN-R coverage. (Five other sites have also been installed at Balerno Wilmcote, Popham, Thame and Guildford in recent weeks but these are not yet optimum performance).
The trial has met all expectations and has received much critical acclaim from users who are able to see when they are under the influence of the OGN uplink. We have introduced changes to PilotAware RADAR in the latest software so that it shows how many base stations you are receiving.
The plan is now to roll out the enhancement of other existing OGN sites and also to use the Powered Flying community to fill in the gaps. With a useful 30Km range each station will provide overlap and redundancy.
The project is now looking for Funding, Champions and Sites.
Funding, we hope that clubs, individuals and organisations will muster their resources and fund individual sites. Installation of a brand-new site should be less than £250 per site using commercially available antennas. An upgrade will be half of this. PilotAware will be providing the 869.5MHz Radio Bridge and Antenna at a discounted price and it required no license. A site will need power, the internet (it doesn’t have to be fast) and somewhere to mount the antennas.
Champions, we will be looking for Champions to co-ordinate the installation of ground stations on geographical areas. The software has been produced to make individual site configuration easy.
Sites, as well as the existing OGN sites, we are exhorting powered flying clubs, individual users and organisations to fill in the gaps.
This new Topic will spawn new threads as the project progresses. So please address all queries about OGN-R here.