Topics

1

General Discussion / Pilotaware ATOM "This was the game changer on the day"

« on: May 15, 2021, 03:57:08 pm »

UK Airprox Board report on an incident at Turweston in December last year.

https://www.airproxboard.org.uk/uploadedFiles/Content/Standard_content/Airprox_report_files/2020/Airprox%20Report%202020167.pdf

Turweston are lucky to be involved with the team at PilotAware and have worked with them to help
develop the Air Traffic Overview & Management (ATOM) system. This was the game changer on the
day as the AGO was able to observe the track of the military aircraft and it was obvious to them that it
would fly through or close to the airfield circuit. So they took the decision on safety grounds to make a
general broadcast to all traffic making them aware of the jet and its position/altitude and the fact that its
track may have put it into conflict, or at least surprise, the Turweston circuit traffic.

Obviously this will spark the debate (I'm thinking Flyer forum here ) of whether the AGO should have done what he did in effectively pass traffic info but hey, he'll have had to live with the consequences  if he hadn't and things had worked out differently!

The UKAB have made it pretty clear to me though, that, in the circumstances, he did the right thing..

The Board first looked at the actions of the AGO. In providing an AGS, they were not required to provide
Traffic Information, other than to pass on known position reports from other pilots. Nevertheless, the
PilotAware ATOM provided the AGO with information that the Phenom was approaching from the north,
and the AGO broadcast this information to the circuit traffic. The Board commended the AGO for their
actions; although some advisors to the Board cautioned against the reliance on, and usage of,
unlicenced equipment and the lack of training thereof. Certainly, a CAA advisor was concerned that an
enthusiastic, but unqualified, AGO could potentially pass inaccurate information that then distracted a
pilot and that the lines between a controller using a calibrated radar and an enthusiast using a web
based program could become blurred; leading to potential confusion for pilots as to the type of service
 being provided. This view was echoed by an MAA advisor who noted that such web-based programmes
could potentially have a lag of up to 7 minutes, meaning that it was not possible to know how accurate
the information was at any given time. Nevertheless, on this occasion, the actions of the AGO had cued
the RV9 pilot to look for, and see, the Phenom and the majority of members thought that it was a positive
result

I see the RV had a Skyecho, but seemingly didn't 'see' the Phenom with that!

2

General Discussion / EC Mandatory by 2024?

« on: April 23, 2021, 01:31:22 pm »

Article in this months Flight Transport News.

A lot of 'hurdles' to be jumped by the looks of it!

3

General Discussion / UK AIRPROX Board Publication

« on: January 10, 2020, 01:50:51 pm »

https://www.airproxboard.org.uk/uploadedFiles/Content/Standard_content/Topical_Issues_and_Themes/Airprox%202019_FINAL_HR.pdf

Good feature on EC

4

OGN-R PilotAware / Very Impressed

« on: November 10, 2019, 07:43:49 pm »

Flying back from Kemble today, our Ground station flawlessly tracked us all the way in for over 60 KM!

First pic is from http://ognrange.unseen.org/?#PWEGSL,max,today,51.88737_0.35691,10,#80000040:#008000ff,
The other is our Skydemon log.

5

Technical Support / A really weird one, PAW grabbed traffic and held it.

« on: August 31, 2019, 05:01:35 pm »

A friend sent me this. He was flying Andrewsfield to Stapleford. G-ELEN was outside a hangar being prepped for flight. 

As he taxied past G-ELEN, his pilotaware put it over his aircraft in Skydemon. It remained there until he got three quarters of the way to Stapleford, warning him all the way, at which point he switched off his PAW due to the annoyance.

G-ELEN remained on the ground for the duration of his flight.

He sent me the attached screenshot and is using the latest PAW software and I can see nothing untoward with his configuration. I've asked him to send me the track log for that trip.

6

General Discussion / Pi 4 Model B

« on: June 24, 2019, 07:12:11 am »

Released today https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b

Can I be the first to ask?.....

7

Technical Support / Power Issues. JuiceBitz Quality Control

« on: May 28, 2019, 05:27:41 pm »

When I upgraded to a Rosetta and a Pi3, I bought a batch of JuiceBitz cables to try out various installation ideas.

The one I preferred in the end used a shorter 0.5m cable, but with that I have been plagued with 0x50005 issues and more recently, Wifi Losses.

I flew today and it happened again just after landing. Having time to investigate, I noticed that the Micro Usb plug was warm. Pulling the plug and touching it, it was hot!

Getting back home I tried another longer JuiceBitz cable and no such issues and the Throttled value went away.

Close examination of the suspect plug and the socket in the Pi revealed no issues so I decided to dissect, carefully removing hot melt glue from underneath the casing. The first image reveals all!



You can see a thread of braid is loose and able to touch the end of the green wire's connection, The green wire is data I beleive but is possibly also connected with a sensing circuit, usually a resistor.  When I connect the USB-A of the cable into the power pack and touch this loose wire to the Grreen wire, the power pack activates so it senses a load.

Moving the loose wire away and plugging the lead into the Rosetta, the plug still gets hot and the device throttles. This, I beleive, to be due to poor soldering of the too short Red wire where solder is used as a bridge.

Hopefully a one off but it shows a bit of a quality control issue even with these cables!  So, even if you are using a good power pack and a (clearly good spec) JuiceBitz cable and still experiencing power issues I suggest you try another cable as a first resort.

***Edited to add 3rd Pic, the main culprit, really bad (dry) soldering on the +ve lead which is where the heat is emanating from!

Vic

8

OGN-R PilotAware / Problems with my site ...Solved (was internet connection)

« on: April 29, 2019, 03:29:08 pm »

Just visited my site to investigate a few things .

I have joined the 360Radar community as a contributor with a pi at home so can see all MLAT targets.

These, though are only occasionally appearing on the EGSL VRS, and when they do, they have an odd routing assigned to them!

Also, on the OGN Status page, P3i Data is constantly Zero.

Help!

9

General Discussion / UK CAA opts for ADS-B as preferred GA tool. SURVEY

« on: August 26, 2017, 03:59:22 pm »

UK CAA opts for ADS-B as preferred GA tool

To help encourage ADS-B take-up by the GA community, the CAA is launching a survey seeking information on the types of devices private pilots already use and what they would prefer to use in future.

10

General Discussion / Tragic News

« on: December 04, 2016, 06:41:27 pm »

very sad...clearly we don't know the circumstances of this but it is another that will no doubt provoke discussion here.

Glider pilot dies in mid-air crash in Leicestershire

A glider pilot has died in a mid-air collision between a glider and a light aircraft.

11

General Discussion / Tuning the DVB Antenna for 1090MHz Specific reception

« on: May 28, 2016, 04:45:25 pm »

During my unsuccessful test flight with my PAW (ADSB only currently) due to connection issues with my Nexus 7, I realised that the DVB antenna was too long to comfortably mount on the coaming of our 172 under the rake of the windscreen. It ended up laying on its side at the base of the screen.

The DVB Antenna which comes with these USB TV tuners is a fairly basic device, It has a quarter wave tuned length to pick up broadcast stations in the 450MHz to 700 MHz band roughly. The screw off monopole top is around 12cm long. The ideal quarter wave resonant length at 1090Mhz is calculated at 68.9mm

I have a small telescopic antenna that can screw onto the DVB-T antenna base. It varies from 60mm up to around 200mm. I was using this on the PAW to find I was getting the best results with it at it's shortest length. While I was experimenting with the PAW in the garden and the antenna up on a fence post, I realised that even without the aerial present, just the base, I was still picking up aircraft around 50NM away! This alone is actually good enough for PAW use!


Antenna base with monopole removed



The exposed coaxial centre is, in itself, an antenna of around 19mm in length.


 So, to complete the construction of a properly tuned ADSB antenna, I cut down the top whip to 50mm in length, gently twisting off the end protector and gluing it back on the new (very sharp) end.

Results of ADSB reception is improved over the original antenna length, seeing targets out to 175Km in my fairly overlooked garden.

Tuned antenna


I know this sort of sensitivity is way over the top in terms of PAW usage but having an antenna tuned to the correct specific frequency is a good start in eliminating other unwanted frequencies, specifically in the natural case of this DVB antenna in its unmodified state, strong TV broadcasts and phone masts!

I now have a much shorter 1090MHz specific antenna which can sit easily on top of the pilotaware unit itself under the windscreen . I also took the opportunity to shorten the cable from the MCX plug as its easy from the antenna end of the cable.  The braiding isn't clamped under the metal disk anymore, but soldered to it aiding with strain releif.

So, my tip is to unscrew the top whip of the DVB antenna and cut it to a total of 50mm in length. Hope someone finds this useful!

12

General Discussion / Question about PilotAware Bridge

« on: May 26, 2016, 07:32:12 am »

I first became aware of PAW a couple of weeks ago when I repaired a friends Zaon PCAS antenna, and , having the opportunity to fly with it , liked the Idea and scoured the net for a possible home built solution, initially seeing Lee's post on the Flyer forums asking about such a possibility. I then had the amazing opportunity to read the full development of the PAW in a few hours! 

I assembled my PAW from parts I had around and a few other items sourced on Ebay (stupidly only a Pi B+) in around an hour. All up and working first time seeing ADSB replies which is a great credit to all those who have worked so hard over the years.

I am going to buy the Radio bridge for my home built setup when it becomes freely available.

Does it come with the antenna and spacers etc to mount it on the Pi? there is no mention of these parts on the hardware site.

Maybe I missed it but I can't seem to see it anywhere.

Thanks