Hi Peter (and all)
you recollection was correct, I just tried removing the REG from the imprecise traffic I send to SkyDemon, and now it is highlighted red/amber/green (again)
The downside, EasyVFR now only displays a banner in red/amber/green with relative height, but does not display the REG.
(your damned if you do, your damned if you dont)
So, what could we do here ?
1. We could lobby SD, EasyVFR, RunwayHD, to accept the REG without ignoring the threat level
2. I could make PilotAware behaviorally different for each vendor - (something I am reluctant to do)
(2) above can be accomplished by assigning each NAV tool a different PIN, eg
6000 - SkyDemon
6001 - RunwayHD
6002 - EasyVFR
....
Then I can behave slightly differently because I know what NAV tool I am talking to, this is not ideal because it means
messages are being interpreted differently
Thx
Lee
Lee,
As we already know, except for relative altitude
we can't provide positional information for bearingless targets.
Our first and most important duty is therefore to give a simple and immediate indication to the pilot of the presence of a bearingless target and an indication of the level of threat presented, in order to get pilots looking outside the aircraft and finding and 'dealing with' any threat which becomes significant. In the case of ADSB / P3i, this is done automatically by the 'eye catching'
moving visual graphic, normally well before it presents any significant risk.
Based on nearly 40 years service as an emergency services trainer, I am in no doubt whatsoever that (second only to motion) colour changing alert symbols - whether in the form of piggybacked aircraft, EasyVFR type 'Banner Alerts' or Paul's colour changing 'rings' - provide the quickest and most effective method of achieving this objective 'at a glance'.
With the exception of the EasyVFR 'banners', the only system providing risk level based alert for bearingless traffic at present is the audio alert sequence. This, however, is totally dependent on the PAW audio being properly connected to our aircraft audio systems and can be easily obscured by heavy radio or other audio traffic or simply turned off, e.g. by simply pulling the plug. In the event of loss of the audio alerts we are at present left only with a small immobile white graphic symbol, a relative altitude and a REG - which (although 'nice to know') is to my mind of minimal value in collision avoidance terms and which (unless you can get Tim Dawson to re-programme SkyDemon - which seems unlikely) I would happily lose in favour of getting back what was a clear graphic warning indicating the presence, relative altitude and degree of risk presented by the threat.
This would finally give us combined audio prompts and visual alerts, jointly indicating the degree of risk, supported by the relative altitude to guide the pilot's direction of search and advise on the likely course of action to maintain or increase separation to avoid collision.
REG or Visual threat level indication - IMHO No contest whatsoever.Give us back the colour changing symbols, Please....
Alan, all you will lose is the REG, you will still have the colour changing banners!
Regards
Peter
