ADS-B working great

[johnsteichen]

Just did the first flight with the ADS-B unit and it functioned right out of the box. A little bit of getting used to different button pushing to find things, but i know that will go away quickly. Very pleased with great display. It actually compliments rather than duplicates the ads-b display using the ipad mini and stratus...

 

[jeffa]

Great to hear. I went out to the hangar today and did the 5.0 update, but it started raining, so I'll have to wait until Monday for a flight.   :'(  Skyview and transponder software updates were a piece of cake. Wish I could've gotten the airplane outside to see if the Freeflight GPS was working. Everything else looks good on the ground.

 

[flybuddy]

Did my first flight with it today. It's very well done with just the right mix of needed info on ADSB status, etc. The weather only map screen is a bit dark, but you have 2 other choices. I liked the weather/terrain coloration better. The traffic info is nothing short of phenomenal. When I hit 1000 feet in the climb I had 8 targets showing with both direction and altitude giving a very clear traffic picture. The traffic alone is worth the price of admission.
Just an FYI, I also have an IPAD running WingX with a single freq Skyradar receiver. The Skyradar is hooked to an outside shark fin transponder antenna with RG400 cable about 3.5 feet from transponder antenna. I installed a stubby transponder antenna for the Dynon ADSB with RG58 (2.5' from ant)(-I have RG400 on order). The Skyradar had full signal at about 400 feet including traffic. Needed 1000 feet on the Dynon due to my antenna setup.
It appears to be worthwhile to purchase the shark fin antenna (tuned for 978) and run RG400 for the BNC cable.
Congrats to Dynon for a great product delivered as promised...thank you!

 

[paxhia]

I did my first flight today out of P52 (Cottonwood,AZ) and all I can say is WOW! There was a skydive jump plane 3100 ft above me climbing and watched him for the next 5 minutes or so. Another target showed from Sedona, I could not make visual contact on the target but it was moving away.
I had to change scales to the west coast to see weather, but there it was Seattle was socked in. Metars and TAFs were there. The screen swap is also fantastic, having the Map on the right screen and swaping it to the left screen is so much better than pushing multiple buttons.
Yes, its a must have!

 

[dynonsupport]

Thrilled to hear the positive pireps!

 

[Bruno]

Any idea how far north of the border one might be able to see traffic and weather??

I'm leaving within 30 miles of the border and if it does show weather specially, I'll buy the box in a second..

Hoping it does....

Bruno

 

[dynonsupport]

That's a pretty hard question to answer. It depends on both the geography of the area and particular station, as well as the data that the FAA actually puts in the Nexrad uplink. The expected line of site range of the ground stations is 100 miles, give or take a bunch, with effective ranges as much as half that.

 

[dynonsupport]

Although, I'll note that page 16 of http://www.faa.gov/nextgen/implementation/media/NextGen_Implementation_Plan_2012.pdf and some of the text (search for Canada) implies that they do intend to serve the "border", but, I can't quickly find a number of miles.

 

[Bruno]

Hello Support

        I looked at the FAA Booklet you provided and looking at page 16, it appears that the ADS-B coverage will be seem north of the border for most of Canada but being in the Northeast, it is where the coverage seem to be less visible due to the position of the ADS-B antenna...

That is something that is worth monitoring though, having weather and traffic will be a major plus..

Thanks

Bruno