{"id":2132,"date":"2018-06-01T11:21:28","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T17:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/?p=2132"},"modified":"2019-12-22T22:59:39","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T04:59:39","slug":"ads-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/?p=2132","title":{"rendered":"ADS-B"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 1, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

No, this is not<\/span> a blog entry on what ADS-B is, how it works, deadlines<\/a>, etc.\u00a0 All of that information is readily available via a few short Google searches (or the link I provided, which takes you to Wikipedia and more than you’ll ever want to know about ADS-B!).\u00a0 What this is, then, is a short description of my<\/strong> experience of having an ADS-B in\/out installed in my Cavalon.<\/p>\n

Why ADS-B and why now?\u00a0 As for ‘why now,’ well, there is a deadline (Jan 1, 2020) which, at some point, I knew I would have to pay attention to.\u00a0 Why ADS-B?\u00a0 Since I have done, and will likely do, a lot of flying outside of the immediate area of my home airport, having an ADS-B — telling other aircraft where you are, and seeing where they are — is definitely a nice safety factor.\u00a0 On cross-country flights, getting weather and NOTAM information is helpful, too.\u00a0 The decision to get one wasn’t hard.\u00a0 The decision about which one to get was considerably more difficult.\u00a0 And the installation issues… well, that’s not easy either.\u00a0 Just about every aircraft is different, so the decisions those owners make will vary from mine… this is not<\/strong><\/em> a review nor a recommendation!<\/p>\n

I had been researching various ADS-B vendors and when I made my trip to Sun-N-Fun, I was able to chat them up at their booths.\u00a0 Again, this isn’t a comparison or a review, so I am not saying my choice is the best (and the vote is still out on whether it was even the best for me), but it’s what I did and what I thought was the best at the time.\u00a0 The vendor I chose is uAvionix, and the unit I selected is the ‘echoUAT’.\u00a0 The device provides both ‘in’ and ‘out’ functions, so I can retire my slightly used Stratux (which provides only ADS-B ‘in’ function).<\/p>\n

While my Stratux has performed well, and I got it at an excellent price point, it was kind of a hassle to set up.\u00a0 I’m in a community hangar so lots of people have access to my plane.\u00a0 I didn’t feel good about leaving the Stratux installed in the plane.\u00a0 Also, the Stratux was not wired into plane power so I had to have a separate battery pack for it, take it home and ensure it was charged up, then remember to take it back to the airport.\u00a0 All of that is a lot of hassle plus I have to set it into a holder in the cockpit, plug it in, and then make sure it works.\u00a0 Often the power connection would not work so I had to jiggle the wire and I worried about a disconnection while in flight.\u00a0 Overall it wasn’t the most worry-free way of going about getting that functionality.\u00a0 One of the main things I was looking forward to with an installed ADS-B in\/out is that all those issues would go away.<\/p>\n

The ‘echoUAT’ is a very small box, about the size of a deck of playing cards.\u00a0 I also got an antenna (it looks identical to my transponder antenna) and a GPS source (they call it the SkyFYX-Ext).\u00a0 One nice feature of the ‘echoUAT’ is that it doesn’t require any wiring between the transponder and itself.\u00a0 It can acquire the information it needs from the transponder ‘over the air.’\u00a0 So, there is one wire connecting the SkyFYX-Ext to the echoUAT, and the rest of it is just wiring it into the airplane power.\u00a0 Oh and the antenna needs to be installed too, of course, with a cable between the echoUAT and the antenna.\u00a0 So the installation process, over all, is pretty simple.<\/p>\n

Because my Cavalon is an all-composite aircraft and there is very little metal used to hold things together, wiring into airplane power is a little more complex but only a little.\u00a0 You can’t just ground something to the frame and have it work, like in a lot of aircraft.\u00a0 I had to have discrete positive and negative wires to get power and ground.\u00a0 Luckily in the wiring bundle behind the circuit breaker panel there is at least one spare positive\/negative lead.\u00a0 Having secured a source for power I only needed to decide where to put the antenna and echoUAT box.<\/p>\n

Below the passenger seat, there is a small “hold”, an empty area that is mostly unused.\u00a0 That is a good spot for both the antenna and the electronics.\u00a0 Here is the echoUAT box, bolted in place.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I also needed to create a “ground-plane” for the antenna.\u00a0 In metal aircraft, that isn’t usually necessary as the metal structure\/frame becomes the antenna’s “ground-plane.”\u00a0 In the case of the Cavalon, you have to make one.\u00a0 I ordered an 8″ copper disc that I use for the “ground-plane”.\u00a0 A 1\/2″ hole is drilled in the center, another hole is drilled through the composite, holes are aligned, then the antenna fits nicely through both and secured.\u00a0 (Using copper was probably overkill, as just about any metal would work…. but it’s kinda pretty!)\u00a0 Here is a picture of that assembly:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The echoUAT box is very close, so I ran a RG400 cable that is only 1-foot long between the box and the antenna.\u00a0 Then the harness of the echoUAT and the wiring from the GPS source are connected, and it all runs through a separate circuit breaker and switch.\u00a0 That’s pretty much it, in general, but as always there are a hundred tiny details.<\/p>\n

For example, the SkyFYX-Ext is a small, white puck-shaped object which is designed to be mounted outside on the surface of the aircraft.\u00a0 But it sits very nicely on the top of the panel and gets a great view of the sky.\u00a0 It works quite well in that location — and no more holes need to be drilled! — but the white color reflects on the windscreen and gives the impression of a UFO.\u00a0 So, I have to attach some black felt pieces to it to make it dark.\u00a0 \u00a0And there are many other tiny details like this that need to be attended to.<\/p>\n

Here’s a shot of everything nice and neat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, I was able to make a test flight on Friday, June 1, 2018.\u00a0 There isn’t really anything to do but ensure it’s on, the transponder is on, it’s configured properly, and you get confirmation from your EFB (electronic flight book).<\/p>\n

Here’s my monitor screen, confirming my configuration:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last, when in-flight, I bring up the ADS-B situation screen on my EFB and I see this:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That tells me that the EFB is communicating with the echoUAT and is receiving data on other aircraft… i.e., ADS-B “in”.\u00a0 \u00a0Success!\u00a0 But getting verification that my ADS-B “out” is working is a bit more difficult.<\/p>\n

To find out if the FAA thinks my ADS-B “out” is a success, I submit information about my flight to the “Public ADS-B Performance Report Request<\/a>” web page.\u00a0 Within 30 minutes, I get an email from the system with a report, and the report says I’m within tolerance.\u00a0 So, from the FAA:\u00a0 success!<\/p>\n

At this point, I’m mostly done.\u00a0 (If you know aircraft — especially experimental aircraft — you know you can only rarely say you’re completely<\/em> done!)\u00a0 I do have to do some firmware upgrades on the echoUAT, and put a grommet here and a bit of shrink wrap there, but mostly done!\u00a0 I can certainly get in my plane now, turn on the master switch, go fly and know that I will be seen by other aircraft with ADS-B, and I will see those other aircraft with ADS-B out.\u00a0 Yeah, Big Brother will be watching and know everything I do, right or wrong but, at the same time, I will be flying more safely.<\/p>\n

I know I’ll be asked if I can recommend this particular solution.\u00a0 From a pricing and ease of installation POV it certainly gets very high marks.\u00a0 However I’m reserving my final opinion until I have more hours under my belt with it.\u00a0 It has a few glitches but the firmware upgrades may resolve those.\u00a0 And the company has been quite good to work with… emails are returned fairly quickly and, in a bind, a phone call to tech support has always gotten through, so high marks there.\u00a0 Regardless of who you select, I do think to have it is better than not.<\/p>\n

Here’s hoping your install goes as easily as mine did!<\/p>\n

— Update, 6\/7\/2018 —<\/p>\n

After some tweaks, I flew again and requested another report, but this time I got an error.\u00a0 I updated the firmware, flew again, requested another report, but now I’ve got two<\/em> errors!\u00a0 Yikes!\u00a0 Conferring with uAvionix, they’ve given me instructions on how to improve the echoUAT sensitivity — which they imply are the reasons for the errors — so I will try that next week and report back.<\/p>\n

— Update, 6\/27\/2018 —<\/p>\n

The threshold sensitivity tweaks did not seem to help.\u00a0 But a few days ago, I was reading my transponder manual, and then later I was looking at photos of the panel I had taken while in flight.\u00a0 It suddenly occurred to me:\u00a0 when I was taking my transition training in January, the instructor told me that the transponder was in Mode C.\u00a0 So, all the time since then I’ve been flying it, thinking it was in Mode C.\u00a0 I happened to notice in a photo that the transponder seemed<\/em> to be in Mode S.<\/p>\n

Now, being in Mode S isn’t a bad thing… the ADS-B system will work if the transponder is in Mode C or Mode S.\u00a0 But the problem is, the transponder was not configured with the right information for Mode S.\u00a0 So it was broadcasting “garbage” rather than the proper information.\u00a0 This had<\/em> to be the problem.\u00a0 I now suspected that the reason so many errors were being generated is that the data being passed on by the ADS-B system was incorrect.<\/p>\n

A quick trip to the hangar, switched the transponder to Mode C, then I flew for about 40 minutes and requested a report.\u00a0 SUCCESS!\u00a0 The report came back with only a few small errors, but none of them were significant, so, my ADS-B system has now PASSED!\u00a0 Yea!<\/p>\n

I felt pretty stupid for not double-checking that element, but I just had it in my head that it was already in Mode C.\u00a0 When I made the change, I could see in the transponder screen some pretty definite differences that indicate it’s now in Mode C, so I knew that was likely the issue.\u00a0 I passed on this to the uAvionix people who were very glad I solved the problem, and that they now had some additional data to look out for, in case someone else was as dunderheaded as I was.<\/p>\n

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\u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 1, 2018 No, this is not a blog entry on what ADS-B is, how it works, deadlines, etc.\u00a0 All of that information is readily available via a few short Google searches (or the link I provided, which takes you to Wikipedia and more than you’ll ever want to know about ADS-B!).\u00a0 What this is, … Continue reading ADS-B<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cavalon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/traffic.jpg?fit=851%2C1039&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2132"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3611,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2132\/revisions\/3611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.texas-flyer.com\/newblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}