SafeSky App

[steveu]

I was testing Safe Skies yesterday whilst being monitored by another user on the ground, seemed pretty seamless if you have 3 or 4G, the track shows when I was turning the Funke on and off.

It's not so much being seamless as the delay when an aircraft is travelling at 120mph(190km/h).

In paragliding we have used various apps and hardware GSM/3G/4G trackers, but we are not using them for any sort of collision warnings, and are flying at air speeds of between 35km/h and 55km/h.

We have used these devices and apps very successfully for over ten years to organise retrieves, to monitor the safe flying of competitors in competitions and to automate competition scoring. The competition server sends alerts to the competition HQ for unexpected descents or any other emergency situation behaviour.

But we do not for use them for anti collision...

Without being able to quantify the dealt exactly we can't say how good they are for anti collision...

[CliveJ]

Hi Steve, the great thing if you guys are on SkySafe is everyone will know you are about and either look out for you or steer clear.
I've seen several of your peers on it testing already and when I'm flying it will be great information, especially when you are cliff or ridge soaring and there's a bunch of you. I have PAW and use FR24 now and again (I live near Helo corridor) and have recently added Sky Safe. All these things just make my look out keener as there are still those who don't transmit anything and any of these systems are not conclusive.

See you up there, Regards, Clive

[steveu]

Hi Steve, the great thing if you guys are on SkySafe is everyone will know you are about and either look out for you or steer clear.
I've seen several of your peers on it testing already and when I'm flying it will be great information, especially when you are cliff or ridge soaring and there's a bunch of you. I have PAW and use FR24 now and again (I live near Helo corridor) and have recently added Sky Safe.

I doubt GA with transponders only will know where we are. It needs an internet connection and isn't universal yet...

I'm slightly keener on FLARM (or FANET+) as it will go direct peer to peer on Sky Echo 2, which has proved to be the most popular EC rebate device, and on PAW via ATOM as well as to FLARM itself. Like I said, we've been using these devices and apps for over ten years, drop out and some slight inaccuracy can be an issue. In competitions if there is a problem then there is an appeals procedure using a locally recorded GPS track either in the hardware tracker or from another device.

I've looked at Safe Sky and it seems to have a slower update rate than FR24, or maybe that was just my internet connection, which proves the point.

I'm looking at doing something on the most recent Isle of Wight ground station.

I'd love to see some figures on latency. That's the elephant in the room...

[CliveJ]

I doubt GA with transponders only will know where we are. It needs an internet connection and isn't universal yet...

Surely that's the point of Sky Safe, anyone, at no cost, with a G'd mobile can get a picture of who's about in the sky, even GA with an old Mode C can have a look on Sky Safe and see who is flying, it's not conclusive and, as you say latency is an issue, but there is good info to be had that wasn't previously available. I've never seen indication of parachutes in the air anywhere before so it has to be step forward and I am encouraging any pilots to have a look at Sky Safe.

Regards, Clive

[steveu]

Begs the question, could Sky Safe flying be fed into the ATOM grid for flyers who have only a mobile phone?

I'd be aghainst this without quantifiable delay. If there was no requirement for high accuracy we could have simply used mobiles and the OGN, as that's what we would be dropping down to. No need for ATOM, just use FR24....

I'd like to see an analysis with Keith's football fields criteria applied.

[exfirepro]

Regarding Skysafe, I was away on tour darn Sarf/Cornwall over the weekend. Monitored it now and again and the phone signal soon drops out so unless low level and flying close to many masts it stops working. One thing that it shows that I've never seen before on anything is parachutes. So worth a look now and again to see who's about as discussed above.

Begs the question, could Sky Safe flying be fed into the ATOM grid for flyers who have only a mobile phone?

Regards, Clive

Thread split from the Aircraft Orientation Issues with Funke Transponder thread.

Peter
(Mod)