first test flight with Rosetta - advice?

[stodge]

Thanks so much for all this fantastic support Peter and Ian!

I will try to get the info regarding the transponder from one of my fellow group owners and come back to the forum when I do. (And yes, I am G-MICI). Perhaps there is something in the transponder set up which is causing the problem - not impossible, given it was upgraded to Extended Squitter ADSB-OUT last month.

I'm also sure the business of selecting GDL90 explains why I never got visual warnings on SD for bearingless traffic (but did get them on PAW radar). I'll check when I next fly - hopefully on Saturday - and hopefully this time with Pilot Aware and not GDL90 selected.

However I'm still not clear - does PAW give vertical separation audio alerts as well as visual for bearingless? I think Ian is suggesting this is the case - and that the actual figure is given if the vertical distance is less that 1,000 feet - but can you or somebody confirm this is indeed what is supposed to happen? If so, and even though I had configured PAW for bearingless with Mode C/S Filter at short-range and +/-1000', I never received such an alert, merely the words 'Traffic Notice,' 'Traffic Danger' etc as appropriate - all of which can be quite stressful and not so helpful when things get really busy up there!

When I next fly I will configure everything as suggested and come back on here with the results. I do hope too that this discussion is useful to more than just me - I think this technology is fantastic but I just need to configure everything so that it all works as well as it should!

[stodge]

PS - incidentally, on Ian's config settings, I'm not quite clear why in PAW the vertical separation range for both bearingless and positional contacts is +/- 2000 ft but in SD the vertical display range is +/- 50,000 ft? 

Or maybe it doesn't matter what the SD figure is if the target ranges are filtered initially by PAW?

[exfirepro]

PS - incidentally, on Ian's config settings, I'm not quite clear why in PAW the vertical separation range for both bearingless and positional contacts is +/- 2000 ft but in SD the vertical display range is +/- 50,000 ft? 

Or maybe it doesn't matter what the SD figure is if the target ranges are filtered initially by PAW?

You have got it in one, the PilotAware filters are applied before data is sent to the Nav Device, so they take precedence over any filter in the Nav Device itself - unless of course you set the Nav Device filter narrower than the PAW one, when it would then simply act as a further (unnecessary) restriction.

On the Audio Alerts, Ian is correct, the PAW Audio alert for Bearingless targets gives a report of ‘Level’, or the height in hundreds (or a combination of thousands and hundreds) of feet Above or Below up to a maximum of 10,000ft (not 1000ft) Above You, e.g. ‘Traffic - Alert - One Thousand Seven Hundred Feet - Above’.

Over 10,000 ft Above you (or in theory Below you), Paw will simply report ’Traffic - Notice - Above’. In practice of course, this only happens with wide open PAW filters (i.e. Long Range and +/- 50,000 feet Altitude Setting) and high power transponders (usually high-level CAT traffic passing overhead).

Positional Alerts, by the way, can report much smaller relative altitudes, depending on how each aircraft breaches one of the ‘cylinders’ around the other aircraft. When following another aircraft, for example, it is perfectly ‘normal’ to hear an alert in the form ‘Traffic - 12 o’clock - 3 Kilometres - 50 feet above’ if the fact that you are closing with them causes them to ‘enter’ through the front of your 3Km radius ‘cylinder’ when you are flying 50 feet below their altitude. If that’s not clear have a good read at the Manual. I must admit it took me a while to get my head round that bit, but it’s a fact - and perfectly logical ....once you get your head round it!

So to summarise, the reason you didn’t get Bearingless Visual Alerts was because of GDL90 and the reason you heard no Bearingless Audio Alerts is simply because you were running ‘Short Range’ and the other traffic either wasn’t transponding or was outside the range of the ‘Short’ filter.

Best Regards

Peter

[Ian Melville]

Stephen,
By setting SD to 50,000ft I am ensuring that PAW filters are the ones that are controlling what I see.

You can check your transponder yourself, using your PAW. If there is a mismatch of Hex codes then your aircraft will appear in the PAW traffic table and will show the Hex code the ADSB is sending. One of the reasons why I wanted a screenshot. Not much you can do until you visit your aircraft again.

[stodge]

OK many thanks for all this. Very useful!

Peter - one thing I would say is that I was in fact getting audio alerts for bearingless, but with no audio vertical separation information. This was clearly not due to traffic 10,000 ft plus above me, but to other traffic in the circuit at Turweston (which we could sometimes see) prompting a whole series of audio alerts/notices/danger warnings without any vertical reference at all. That was the stressful bit. Had there been audio warnings of vertical separation it would have been both much more useful and much easier to manage.

This is why I'm v keen to understand how to ensure I get audio alerts for bearing less contacts with vertical separation, as you say should be the case, the next time I fly.

Could this also be due to being on GDL90 rather than PAW? Or something else I'm doing wrong?

Art any rate I'll get those screenshots overt you on the next flight. Hopefully soon it will all come together!

Cheers and thanks again,
Stephen   

[exfirepro]

OK many thanks for all this. Very useful!

Peter - one thing I would say is that I was in fact getting audio alerts for bearingless, but with no audio vertical separation information. This was clearly not due to traffic 10,000 ft plus above me, but to other traffic in the circuit at Turweston (which we could sometimes see) prompting a whole series of audio alerts/notices/danger warnings without any vertical reference at all. That was the stressful bit. Had there been audio warnings of vertical separation it would have been both much more useful and much easier to manage.

This is why I'm v keen to understand how to ensure I get audio alerts for bearing less contacts with vertical separation, as you say should be the case, the next time I fly.

Could this also be due to being on GDL90 rather than PAW? Or something else I'm doing wrong?

Art any rate I'll get those screenshots overt you on the next flight. Hopefully soon it will all come together!

Cheers and thanks again,
Stephen   

Hi again Stephen,

In this case nothing to do with GDL90. What was happening there was that because SkyDemon can only report one Bearingless Target at any time (unlike EasyVFR which can handle up to 3), we have to prioritise the signal presenting the highest risk - which is usually the one nearest to you. In the circuit, however this gets extremely complicated, hence the profusion of audio warnings if there is a lot of traffic about. Lee has done a major rewrite of the audio warning algorithms to reduce this 'clutter' which significantly improves things. This will be in the next software release.

Best Regards

Peter