Brian wrote:
Currently we do want to keep the Internet and ADS-B consistent, however we are looking at ways to visually spruce them up on both Internet and ADS-B. It's definitely on the wishlist...
I'm not too proud to admit I was wrong about this when I first got iFly a year and a half ago. But now I vote to keep the blocks.
Before iFly, I had come from Garmin's Pilot and got used to their nice, smooth RADAR presentation. Whether they had higher resolution for their Internet weather (possible) or just made the same data look pretty (Marketing), I do not know. But now that I've been flying ADS-B NEXRAD near real thunderstorms in Arizona, I prefer the blocks for at least three reasons:
1) The nature of ADS-B NEXRAD is that "it is what it is." As it stands now, it is blocky when zoomed in a bunch. Out here in the sparse deserts of Arizona, where the RADAR installations are few and far between, there are times when a cell will only paint as a few small blocks. (Maybe it should paint more, but the signal might be too weak for that.) To have iFly pretty up the picture by (presumably) feathering inside the block would be dangerous. It would subtract data that I need about the cell.
2) The fact that the NEXRAD is "blocky" actually helps my eyes pick out when only one or two blocks are lit up. If the NEXRAD were feathered or smoothed, I might miss a cell, mistaking the green/yellow coloring for something on the Sectional. (I run the opacity at about 60% on NEXRAD, so it's easy for this to happen. (About this time I might suggest a "Spike Flash" mode where Opacity pulses to 100%. (For Terrain too.) But no one seems to like flashing.))
3) The fact that the NEXRAD is blocky actually helps keep me out of trouble. Let me explain: We have an old WX-8 Stormscope in our Glasair. Unlike the round CRT/LED displays on the more expensive units with their high resolution 255 points, the WX-8 has 27 discrete segments, which are rather large. Consequently, it's impossible to know exactly where a cell is with the WX-8, which eliminates the temptation to pick your way around a cell. So when a segment lights up, I stay away from that segment. In the same way, when a block lights up on ADS-B, I stay away. If the blockiness were smoothed out on iFly, I might be tempted to skirt weather too close, believing that I had safe margin.
I expect that, someday, the FAA will increase the resolution of NEXRAD. So this blockiness will take care of itself someday. But I'm also realistic enough to know that Marketing often wins over Reality; that pretty screens are sexy; and that sex sells.
Updated for correctness on my part.