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evapilotaz

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So the midair collision crash got me thinking. What is the most inexpensive air traffic warning system that is portable? Is there such a thing?
 
There used to be a portable TCAS system that you could buy through Sportys/Spruce, but it was expensive (over $1000 I believe) and the company Zaon went out of business a couple years ago. I haven't seen anything to take its place other than ADS-B
 
Fearless Tower said:
There used to be a portable TCAS system that you could buy through Sportys/Spruce, but it was expensive (over $1000 I believe) and the company Zaon went out of business a couple years ago. I haven't seen anything to take its place other than ADS-B
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You can still buy Zaon on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Zaon-PCAS-Portable-Collision-Avoidance/dp/B003LYLO0M
I have one, which I use in conjunction with ADSB (no OUT). It's nice to have an extra pair of eyes watching out for your traffic. It's not perfect, but probably better than human eyes in most cases (esp. when in poor vis or IMC).
But since the company is gone, there is no warranty.
 
Old school TIS traffic via a mode S transponder is still out there, although some radar sites no longer ping back the traffic picture. It works really well in areas where service is available. However at this point ADS-B is really the main way to go.
 
Waiting for the "all you needs is your eyes" crowd in Three.....two.......
 
Zaon is out of business, the only ones for sale on Amazon are used ones.
It still works semi-adequately. I've had one for a few years.
 
evapilotaz said:
So the midair collision crash got me thinking. What is the most inexpensive air traffic warning system that is portable? Is there such a thing?
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your eyes and ears...eyes outside and listen to ATC or the CTAF. never assume that the other guy is either looking or listening.
 
You can still find these on Ebay and such, but they're too sensitive and sound off at anything. Annoying.
 
Zaon and a SkyRadar box works for me. Zaon can display traffic on WingX with a wifi dongle or via cable.bt to some Garmin portable units
 
rk911 said:
glad I didn't disappoint you. :wink2:
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GA....the highest rate of aircraft midair collisions. The least amount of cockpit technology.

Commercial aviation, the highest level of technology, extremely rare to have a midair incident.



Keep looking brother, I'll have the target on my iPad and 430w while you are still oblivious there is even traffic near you.:rolleyes2:
 
Unit74 said:
GA....the highest rate of aircraft midair collisions. The least amount of cockpit technology.

Commercial aviation, the highest level of technology, extremely rare to have a midair incident.



Keep looking brother, I'll have the target on my iPad and 430w while you are still oblivious there is even traffic near you.:rolleyes2:
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Correlation is not causation. GA also flies a whole lot more NORDO and other VFR operations. AND has a whole lot less training.
 
Doesn't change the facts no matter what excuse is applied.
 
Unit74 said:
Doesn't change the facts no matter what excuse is applied.
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Most GA airplane crashes involve white planes.

What conclusions do you draw from that? Does white paint cause crashes? What would be the result if I painted every airplane I fly blue?

Gotta think about the logic here. You have not provided any evidence that a traffic alert system results in fewer accidents. Such evidence may exist elsewhere, but your "observation" is not nearly as conclusive as you think.

It just ain't always true that more information is better.

That Part 121 always flies IFR explains the lack of midairs all by itself.
 
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MAKG1 said:
That Part 121 always flies IFR explains the lack of midairs all by itself.
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Even part 121 with TCAS and IFR is not immune. Unfortunately, still too many 121 collisions and even more near misses.
 
evapilotaz said:
So the midair collision crash got me thinking. What is the most inexpensive air traffic warning system that is portable? Is there such a thing?
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Flight following. Weighs less than a feather and costs less than a penny. It's not perfect, but what system is?
 
I local sight seeing flights most of the time so never will be on flight following. I bee bop out of non towered airports a lot so that has me most concern about a collision.
 
evapilotaz said:
I local sight seeing flights most of the time so never will be on flight following. I bee bop out of non towered airports a lot so that has me most concern about a collision.
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Coming out of the pattern, sure. But even for the local sightseeing flights you can jump on flight following. In my ~4 years of flying I've only been outright denied once, even for many sightseeing flights, and that's flying mainly around the Washington DC and Detroit metro areas. And then on your way back in, they can give you an idea of what the pattern looks like. I think it comes out pretty nicely when you do a cost benefit analysis!
 
I am willing to bet most pilots would agree that $900 is a good investment after Zaon alerts them to the first threat they didn't see.
My guess is you'll generally have one such cost-effectiveness demo for every couple of flights, regardless how diligently you look for traffic.
 
MAKG1 said:
Most GA airplane crashes involve white planes.

What conclusions do you draw from that? Does white paint cause crashes? What would be the result if I painted every airplane I fly blue?

Gotta think about the logic here. You have not provided any evidence that a traffic alert system results in fewer accidents. Such evidence may exist elsewhere, but your "observation" is not nearly as conclusive as you think.

It just ain't always true that more information is better.

That Part 121 always flies IFR explains the lack of midairs all by itself.
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Funny you mention that... :idea:

I'd be willing to bet we'd see a statistically significant decrease in GA midairs if we required everybody to paint their aircraft reflective bright non-white, non-blue colors, non-green, safety type colors.

White, blue, and green can be hard to see depending on where they are. And shiny things are easier to spot, too.
 
Unit74 said:
GA....the highest rate of aircraft midair collisions. The least amount of cockpit technology.

Commercial aviation, the highest level of technology, extremely rare to have a midair incident.



Keep looking brother, I'll have the target on my iPad and 430w while you are still oblivious there is even traffic near you.:rolleyes2:
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Calling Shennigans on this one; you're comparing fish and bicycles. Hardly anyone, GA or commercial, is merging aluminum at cruise, and at altitude. We, GA, smack each other in the pattern, and/or down low, where commercial traffic doesn't spend nearly as much time, and is down there less frequently, too (probably).

Electrons may help cut the GA rate some, I concur. Though the "rates" have pretty much zero value as measures - the Feds don't have the first idea about GA hours flown, or when, or average altitude, or time spent in the patterns at uncontrolled fields, etc.

One good technology that might help protect you is to stay away from uncontrolled fields on weekends, when the weather is nice and x-winds are low. My un-scientific intuition is that might reduce your mid-air probability at least as much.

Not knocking the electronic traffic eyes, just saying that if you die in a GA airplane, it appears very unlikely it'll be in a mid-air.
 
"Days of the week with the most midair collisions were Saturday (21.8%) and Sunday (22.4%), with 10.9– 13.5% each day Tuesday through Friday, and 5.8% on Monday."

From "Midair Collisions: Limitations of the See-and-Avoid Concept in Civil Aviation" by C. Craig Morris.

Fly on a Monday - hardly anyone flies on Mondays. At least they didn't till I posted this. :D
 
Jim Logajan said:
"Days of the week with the most midair collisions were Saturday (21.8%) and Sunday (22.4%), with 10.9– 13.5% each day Tuesday through Friday, and 5.8% on Monday."



From "Midair Collisions: Limitations of the See-and-Avoid Concept in Civil Aviation" by C. Craig Morris.



Fly on a Monday - hardly anyone flies on Mondays. At least they didn't till I posted this. :D
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Don't you have to adjust those numbers by number of total flights to get an actual risk number?

Monday might be really high risk and just not as many in total. ;)

Statistics and lies. Gotta love it.
 
I use and own two of these. They are the Monroy ATD 300. These to are no longer being produced but Monroy will service them and provides parts if needed. It picks up mode S too.

http://www.pilotshop.com/catalog/avpages/monroyairtraffic.php?gclid=CI-S8KmKuscCFQswaQodMhcNWQ

I might be willing to sell one of these units. You can find them on Ebay sometimes for around 400 bucks. I would sell one for 300 bucks. You have to watch Monroy made an ATD 200 and most people pawn those off. They do not give much info. The ATD300 is a better unit.
 
Unit74 said:
GA....the highest rate of aircraft midair collisions. The least amount of cockpit technology.

Commercial aviation, the highest level of technology, extremely rare to have a midair incident.



Keep looking brother, I'll have the target on my iPad and 430w while you are still oblivious there is even traffic near you.:rolleyes2:
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More like they operate out of towered airports and cruise in the FLs.

As for the tech, yes and no.

I've seen many experimental with much nicer panels than many Commerical planes.
 
James331 said:
More like they operate out of towered airports and cruise in the FLs.



As for the tech, yes and no.



I've seen many experimental with much nicer panels than many Commerical planes.
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Absolutely! Half of the GA planes I see have better or on par avionics to what we have in the 757/767 fleet. Nearly every GA plane has better avionics (for traffic, navigation and wx) than we have in the F15.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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