Okay, I upgraded my Garmin 330 transponder to a 330ES a couple months ago. It's connected to a 430W with the latest software upgrade and should be now fully compliant. So far it's been really great. I'm displaying traffic on both the 696 GPS and iPad using the Garmin Pilot app. I can now see most of the traffic as it is triggering the ground stations to send the traffic up to my GDL-39 receiver to display. And my friend Randy, who flies next to me in his RV-8 frequently, also gets the benefit of seeing more traffic using his GDL because he's within my 15 mile hockey puck. When the traffic is shadowed behind hills from radar I'm not seeing them as expected.
In Oregon we have quite good ADS-B ground station coverage. I only lose it flying at low altitudes around hills. I recently discovered a cool website http://planefinder.net. What's interesting about this website is that you can see current air traffic, or you can go back in time and look for traffic at a specific time. So I've went back to a time when I know I've been flying and found my tail number scooting across the screen. Yes, big brother is watching our every move. What I don't get, is that it appears that I'm only seeing actual radar tracks and not any ADS-B position reports. If I go too low and am shadowed by radar then my track drops off the screen. When I'm talking too low it could be 3000 feet or higher but shadowed by radar. That's typical for this area with all the hills. In these cases I could guarantee that I probably had reception from at least three ADS-B ground stations at that location and altitude. I've checked multiple flight tracks and it's the same story for all of them.
Recently I made about a 45 minute flight using flight following. Seattle Center at one point said they didn't have me for a little while at 4500 feet because that was an area that I'd need to be a little higher. That in fact was an area where you could expect that to happen if you didn't have ADS-B. But it's an area of solid, multiple ADS-B ground station coverage. When I did see my radar track it did display tail number, altitude, speed and squawk code. I'm assuming that was probably info they received from my transponder direct to the radar site. Probably the same info they'd get from any TIS transponder.
So my question, is the FAA really seeing any ADS-B traffic? Or is our ADS-B position being sent to the ground stations and that's where it stops? The ADS-B is doing the job of triggering the ground station to send traffic images up, but it's like my position never makes it into the system via ADS-B. Could it be that we have until 2020 to upgrade because it may take them that long to figure out how to view our position and integrate it with the existing radar? Maybe ADS-B is only a benefit to the pilots today.
In Oregon we have quite good ADS-B ground station coverage. I only lose it flying at low altitudes around hills. I recently discovered a cool website http://planefinder.net. What's interesting about this website is that you can see current air traffic, or you can go back in time and look for traffic at a specific time. So I've went back to a time when I know I've been flying and found my tail number scooting across the screen. Yes, big brother is watching our every move. What I don't get, is that it appears that I'm only seeing actual radar tracks and not any ADS-B position reports. If I go too low and am shadowed by radar then my track drops off the screen. When I'm talking too low it could be 3000 feet or higher but shadowed by radar. That's typical for this area with all the hills. In these cases I could guarantee that I probably had reception from at least three ADS-B ground stations at that location and altitude. I've checked multiple flight tracks and it's the same story for all of them.
Recently I made about a 45 minute flight using flight following. Seattle Center at one point said they didn't have me for a little while at 4500 feet because that was an area that I'd need to be a little higher. That in fact was an area where you could expect that to happen if you didn't have ADS-B. But it's an area of solid, multiple ADS-B ground station coverage. When I did see my radar track it did display tail number, altitude, speed and squawk code. I'm assuming that was probably info they received from my transponder direct to the radar site. Probably the same info they'd get from any TIS transponder.
So my question, is the FAA really seeing any ADS-B traffic? Or is our ADS-B position being sent to the ground stations and that's where it stops? The ADS-B is doing the job of triggering the ground station to send traffic images up, but it's like my position never makes it into the system via ADS-B. Could it be that we have until 2020 to upgrade because it may take them that long to figure out how to view our position and integrate it with the existing radar? Maybe ADS-B is only a benefit to the pilots today.
The interesting thing is that this "own ship" only shows up on the Hxr traffic display, and not on my 430W TIS-B traffic display. So, I guess it must be coming from the Skyradar receiver, which is wired directly to the Hxr via USB cable. GRT is working with me to come up with the "fix" for the problem and I am confident we will get it worked out.
