Java,

No personal experience but I looked at this maybe 18 months ago and it was VERY pricey, and not a one-time fee but recurring subscriptions. It looked to me like a better solution for a corporate situation or for someone who flies A LOT. Maybe prices have come down (I couldn't find any costs after a quick pass through the website).

cheers,
greg
 
Aviation suited

I like how it works. As I understand it, it will start tracking at a given ground speed (say, 40 kts) and then once it senses a ground speed of zero, unless you let it know you've landed successfully it will start sending text messages out.

Cool setup. Maybe prices will come more in line in the future.
 
I talked to Spider Tracks last year at Oshkosh. The big turn-off for me was

a) purchase price = $995 for the hardware and...
b) monthly access fee = $10 / 4 hours of flight time and...
c) per hit cost = $0.15 per ping (every 2 minutes) and...
d) higher per hit cost if you exceed your plan (ie 4 hours of flight time)

On the other hand, the SPOT goes for a basic plan rate of $99 / year. That gives you unlimited pings spaced every 10 minutes (30 miles apart in an RV)

Spider Tracks and Spot are satellite based, so they have 100% coverage just about anywhere we may fly.

Or, my APRS cost about $200 for equipment (aprs transmitter from Byonics), and I never have to pay for a subscription or a "per ping" fee. My APRS pings approximately every two minutes when I'm traveling in a straight line, and about every 15 seconds when I'm in a turn.

APRS is ground-based radio, so coverage in sparse terrain may be hit-and-miss. APRS has always been very reliable at cruise altitude, even over the most desolate areas, not so reliable if I was scud running at lower elevations in sparse locations.

All three systems (Spider Tracks / Spot / APRS) are real time internet accessible by anyone who has your tracking info, and tracks are archived online for personal flight review or Search and Rescue efforts.

To see what an APRS track looks like, click on my APRS track in my signature block...
 
java said:
I know some of you have experience with SPOT, but wondering if anyone has first hand experience with Spidertracks?
Click to expand...

I have recently installed Spidertracks in my 9A and am quite impressed with the system. The idea behind Spidertracks is simple but it takes some time to understand how it all works in practice.

I have not had any experience with SPOT etc, but I understand the GPS tracking for Spidertracks works in a similar way.

As I understand it, the main differences between Spidertracks and SPOT are:

Spidertracks defaults to one (or two) minute updates in Watch mode (it can be set longer in monitor mode). SPOT is 10+ minutes.

Spidertracks uses the Iridium satellite network which I understand is more reliable and has a better coverage. See page 3 post #28 http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=34572

Spidertracks has automatic as well as manually activated alerting. In a crash that is bad enough for the pilot to be unconscious or worse, it is assumed that the Spider (the unit in the aircraft) would stop transmitting due to damage, loss of electrical power or no longer having a clear view of the satellites. The Spiderwatch system activates an alert when the regular reports have not been received from the Spider in the aircraft for 15 minutes.

Spidertracks is more expensive than SPOT but I am happy to pay extra if it means I get rescued quicker if I crash somewhere remote like outback Australia. The Spider is $995 USD, about the cost of a 406 fixed ELT and I am on the $15 per month plan which gives 7 hours with extra hours charged at $4.50 To put it in perspective, this is about the cost of fuel for 1/2 hr flying!

Can't speak for the USA but one issue for me in Australia is that Spidertracks does not yet have a system in place where alerts are automatically sent to the official rescue services (currently SMS and email alerts go to contacts previously nominated by the pilot). Spidertracks gave me a money back guarantee that they would soon have such a system in place.

I have only done a couple of short flights with Spidertracks but you can view them here (Click F Atherton's Public Tracks)

Fin
9A
 
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