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Flight tracking / ADSB vs APRS

punkin

Well Known Member
I'm hoping to do my ADSB validation flight this weekend. Messing with the install got my wife asking me what exactly it does...I really don't know the answer.

BUT, she also has been asking about me getting a SPOT device like I got for my dad several years ago; I was looking at APRS tracking as well.

All of that said, can't she track me pretty reliably through the ADS-B websites like ADS-B Exchange or others?

Do any of you have a favorite website, or any of them work any better than others? Is there a reason other than geek factor for me to get a license and do APRS if I have ADSB?

If I were to put my plane down somewhere, would ADSB give a reasonable enough last signal for search and rescue purposes?

Thanks to you all who know more than me!
 
Scott, that is a question I am also pondering following installation of ADS-B in my RV-6. I have been flying an APRS tracker for nearly ten years and have always been impressed with its capabilities. When I go to the airport, I leave the APRS tracking page running on my desktop at home and the wife often checks it to see where my little aircraft is located.

But I am also wondering if the two technologies are redundant. ADS-B is here to stay--am I safe to remove the APRS tracker (and external antenna) from the plane?

Below are two images of my VFR (squawking 1200) ADS-B validation flight for the rebate (received!). The first is the ADS-B track from Flightaware:

ADS-B_flightaware.jpg


And here is the same flight with APRS tracking from aprs.fi:

ADS-B_aprs.jpg


The tracks are almost identical, however this was a flight only twenty miles from a Class C radar site, and within "sight" of multiple APRS ground stations. Our question becomes more relevant as a flight progresses farther from a radar. Once the aircraft descends below radar coverage the ADS-B track will be lost. And if there are no ground stations nearby, the APRS track can disappear as the plane descends into a soybean field.

So which is better? It depends on the population of radar and/or APRS ground stations in the proximity of the aircraft. I'm still pondering this situation and will base any future decision on my increasing experience with ADS-B tracking.

I am a fan of APRS, but it may become somewhat obsolete as ADS-B becomes the mandated system. But APRS does have one advantage over ADS-B in that it is practically real-time. I've found my ADS-B tracks do not always appear until sometime after the flight has been completed.
 
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Thanks Sam!

Great input! Those are kind of the same questions I have. I will see how well the ADSB does for a while...I've always thought the APRS thing was cool, but like you say, may be approaching a point of less value if ADSB does all the stuff it's supposed too!
 
Regardless of your conclusions, I think Sam and others will concur, that getting your HAM license (for many of us a life long dream) and the costs involved make APRS a worthy piece of technology. Please don't think these two items are "apples to apples". There will be a few thousand dollars difference though. :)
 
Regardless of your conclusions, I think Sam and others will concur, that getting your HAM license (for many of us a life long dream) and the costs involved make APRS a worthy piece of technology. Please don't think these two items are "apples to apples". There will be a few thousand dollars difference though. :)

Agree--the entry price of APRS is ridiculously low for the value added to aviation.
 
ADSB track

Is their a way to track an ADSB out plane other than asking for an FAA report? Is their a way to track in real time?
 
How did you get Flightaware to show your VFR ADSB tracks? The only thing Flightaware shows for my RV-10 are my IFR flights.

thanks,

bob
 
I've enjoyed APRS for many years. As an educational technology it has been rewarding.

As ADSB deployment grows, I see less "information value" in APRS as an airborne tracking solution. Nothing is perfect and there is a lot more overlap in the tracking abilities of ADSB and APRS, especially as more internet solutions appear.

Over time more and more "tracking only" aircraft users of APRS will be asking the same question as the original post.
 
Tooch,
Tried to set this up for my wife as well.
Not so much success.
Tried comercial apps, Flighttrack, planefinder; inconsistent results.
I have no idea why.

Daddyman
 
flightradar24 - To see past tracks, go to "Data/History", then search by tail number. Without a paid account, only flights within the last 7 days can be viewed.

FlightAware has a similar feature and looks lot go back at least 4 months (but probably a bit more).

I've not checked FlightAware for live tracking ( as I've been busy flight the airplane :) )
 
They are called "position only flights" and are OFF by default. If you sign up for a free account, you can change your preferences so position only flights are ON.

Thanks!

It's interesting that Flightaware is only showing about a third of my position only flights.
 
Track

I will go into Flight aware and look for my flight after i fly today. I do know if you are in the system by flying IFR or getting flight following, then you can find your flight. But are you guys saying that if i just do a vfr flight squawking 1200, that i could go back and track the flight? Or better yet I could have someone like my wife, track me real time?
 
I will go into Flight aware and look for my flight after i fly today. I do know if you are in the system by flying IFR or getting flight following, then you can find your flight. But are you guys saying that if i just do a vfr flight squawking 1200, that i could go back and track the flight? Or better yet I could have someone like my wife, track me real time?

Here is my lunch flight yesterday, ADS-B tracking on Flightaware, VFR, squawk 1200:

flightaware.jpg


Flight originated at DCU, lunch at CMD with ~30 downtime, then return to DCU. I can fly in a straight line but was playing around with seeing how the Trio Pro Pilot would track a new iFly GPS install. It works fine.

Flightaware merged this into one flight. I don't know if it was real-time, I need to follow up on that. Flightradar24 is not as intuitive, I've had trouble getting consistent results, maybe I just haven't figured it out yet....I can't pull up my flight maps using their mobile app.
 
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I can also replay my flights with flightradar24.com. Flights within the last 7 days are available for free. Different subscription levels, starting at $10/yr, let you go further back.

Their app on my iPad has an augmented reality mode where if I point the iPad at a plane in the sky, it can figure out what it is. It will tell me something like SWA102, and show me where it took off from, where it is going, how long ago it took off, and how long until it arrives. I assume that all requires a flight plan, but it is real time.

I just tried it and saw a GA plane. The display says:

Nxxxx
Altitude/Speed (BT36)

The altitude was changing rapidly as the plane was climbing.
 
Made another VFR (1200) test flight this morning and used it as an opportunity to watch the Flightaware app on my phone in flight.

I don't fully understand the Flightaware logic, maybe someone with a deeper understanding of their system can chime in. A search for N399SB inflight only returned yesterday's flight but the flight map for KDCU showed me enroute with about a minute delay. Back at the hangar the flight didn't appear in Flightaware's search until about an hour after I landed.

Makes the simple and reliable APRS system look....simple and reliable. :)
 
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I have found flightaware to now be very inconsistent. For years it worked for every flight with flight following in real time. My wife would follow me until touch down. In January 2016 it would appear to only work with a 2020 compliant ADS-B out. Now that I am fully 2020 compliant it is still inconsistent. Sometimes local flights will continue with a data gap even after extensive ground stops and sometimes there is nothing. Likewise no pattern even with flight following at altitude on extensive cross countries. Is it just flightaware?

As an update, I changed my account to show position only flights and now all seem to show up with position only ones marked as (this flight is restricted from public view) it appears that these flights had a portion with some data loss, perhaps loss of radar coverage for a short time. I'm going to run the ADS-B FAA test report.....ran test reports for multiple flights with no exceptions shown so it is on there end I guess.
 
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