iFly GPS Forum

It works! I think! Ed sent me a new OS flashing SD today... actually I think Patty Bell sent it. But, I flashed my unit, hooked it up, and had no errors! Since I live way out in the middle of nowhere, between two mountain ranges, there was no reception at the house. So, I packed all the gear up in my van and headed to the foothills over looking town. I hooked it all up again, per Ed's instructions and, PRESTO, I received data. Here is what I got and on what Mode Page I got it.

I received weather TAFs, METARS, all on the Mode Page for Weather.... It displays a vector diagram on the Weather Page and the major airports all showed green when weather information was available for that field. (It takes a bit of time to upload all the fields.) When you touch the screen by an airport, the weather chart window opens and you can select from a list of charts/reports. I found TAFs and METARS worked great. When I looked for weather at airports some 1,400 miles away, I got nothing, by the way. I did not receive any PIREPS (maybe there were none), nor did I receive any winds. Do I need to wait longer?

NexRad weather was not received.... But, we are talking Tucson, AZ and there wasn't a cloud for 200 or 300 miles! This leads me to one of my questions... If there was weather, would it show on all the Mode Chart options? Would it overlay the Sectional, the Low Enroute, and the Vector charts? OR is it only shown on the Weather Mode chart? That's question one.... where do you find NexRad, if there happens to be a NexRad presentation?

Then there is traffic. I didn't expect to see traffic. I didn't see traffic! But IF there was an ADS-B OUT aircraft flying out there today, and IF my receiver is working properly, then where would that traffic had appeared on my iFly? Would it be an overlay for any of the mode charts, a specific mode chart, or what/where? So, that is question two.... Where would you find the traffic info, assuming there was someone out there to wakeup the ADS-B system? And question three.... IF there was traffic around Phoenix waking up the ADS-B there, would I see that traffic in Tucson a hundred miles away?

Three questions... any answers?

Thanks,

Kent

Q1) ADSB stations only broadcast weather within 500-ish NM of their location - so you won't get live data further than that.

Q2) If there is any precipitation you should receive a nexrad radar image; but you won't if not. It will only show up on the weather page. In a future release we may make this an option for all map modes.

Q3) Traffic will show in all map modes. If it's within 5nm +/- 3000 ft you will see a green airplane on the map, and receive a warning beep. If within 1nm, it will be red and you will receive a popup warning. If more than 5nm it will just be a small dot on the screen. BUT, (this is a big but), the FAA is only broadcasting traffic around aircraft with an ADSB transceiver, so this really won't be useful if you only have a receiver onboard. There is a chance one of these alerts might help you out...but it will be far from dependable. You would need to be close to an aircraft with a transceiver before any traffic relevant to your current position is included in the FAA broadcast.

-Walter

The FAA has a vested interest in getting aircraft operators to install ADSB-compliant transponders, as that's a key component of the new next-gen ATC system. While all planes will eventually be required by law to carry the equipment, perhaps only providing traffic information to planes equipped with such a transponder is a way to entice operators into installing such equipment today.