Paul Eastham
Well Known Member
I didn't want to redo my panel or make big mods for ADS-B, as I'm thinking about an eventual new panel in a few years. So I was looking for the lowest-impact, low-cost path forward.
- The uavionix tailbeacon was tempting, but I didn't want to lose my tail strobe.
- The echo/skyfyx solution looked interesting, but two antennas to mount, and a ground plane is required so you're probably drilling holes in your belly. And I already have ADS-B in via a stratux. (Cheapest option out of the three)
- Finally I looked at the skybeacon. It didn't seem to fit in the stock Van's wingtip, but could you mount it INSIDE the wingtip and just do without the position light functionality? (and some vendors still carry the experimental version of this, which is a bit cheaper)
Turns out, they seem to tacitly support this method by allowing you to disable the position light and strobe in the software tool.
Additional difficulty: I only had 12V on my right wing, while the skybeacon is set up to be on the left wingtip. I wasn't sure if it would read appropriate gps speed when flown "backward", so I made a longer bracket attached to the outer wing ribs, that would preserve a clear view of the sky and ground for the antennas. (rv7charlie points out this might not have been necessary since the gps can't really tell which way it's facing, though the ads-b antenna might be set up to radiate outboard -- seems unlikely but possible)
Also, conveniently, you can offset the position report to either the left or right of the aircraft center in the software tool.
With the bracket, I tried to keep the unit away from the metal rib in order to maximize antenna visibility. I was a bit nervous that it wouldn't work, but I just did my PAPR and got a perfect report even in some areas of marginal coverage according to my stratux.
No problems in picking up my squawk code from the transponder, it worked without adjustment. Thumbs up on the skybeacon even in "nontraditional" installs! A few photos are here.
- The uavionix tailbeacon was tempting, but I didn't want to lose my tail strobe.
- The echo/skyfyx solution looked interesting, but two antennas to mount, and a ground plane is required so you're probably drilling holes in your belly. And I already have ADS-B in via a stratux. (Cheapest option out of the three)
- Finally I looked at the skybeacon. It didn't seem to fit in the stock Van's wingtip, but could you mount it INSIDE the wingtip and just do without the position light functionality? (and some vendors still carry the experimental version of this, which is a bit cheaper)
Turns out, they seem to tacitly support this method by allowing you to disable the position light and strobe in the software tool.
Additional difficulty: I only had 12V on my right wing, while the skybeacon is set up to be on the left wingtip. I wasn't sure if it would read appropriate gps speed when flown "backward", so I made a longer bracket attached to the outer wing ribs, that would preserve a clear view of the sky and ground for the antennas. (rv7charlie points out this might not have been necessary since the gps can't really tell which way it's facing, though the ads-b antenna might be set up to radiate outboard -- seems unlikely but possible)
Also, conveniently, you can offset the position report to either the left or right of the aircraft center in the software tool.
With the bracket, I tried to keep the unit away from the metal rib in order to maximize antenna visibility. I was a bit nervous that it wouldn't work, but I just did my PAPR and got a perfect report even in some areas of marginal coverage according to my stratux.
No problems in picking up my squawk code from the transponder, it worked without adjustment. Thumbs up on the skybeacon even in "nontraditional" installs! A few photos are here.
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