uAvionix status update

[Paul 5r4]

So for same flight you are missing on flight aware, what does the FAA performance report show? Im guessing uAvionics is going to ask, and likely don’t care about your issue with it not showing up on a third party tracking product. YMMV

That's a good point, however, after both flights I made, I submitted a request for a performance report and both times it says my flight can not be found. So this takes me back to square one that something is amiss. I did call them twice today and sent an email as well. No return call. In the mean time I am going to try the after install of the echoALT software update again. Maybe there was an error during this update. Like I said before, my flights ALWAYS showed up on flight aware and every performance report was clean.

 

[Majorpayne317641]

So for same flight you are missing on flight aware, what does the FAA performance report show? Im guessing uAvionics is going to ask, and likely don’t care about your issue with it not showing up on a third party tracking product. YMMV

Flight aware’s sensor network is probably bigger than the FAA’s so they will pick you up faster than the FAA can. It also melds data from FAA radar sources if you fly IFR. You can volunteer to pipe in data as a consumer with your own DIY receiver at home. Many aviation enthusiasts do this with flight aware. They receive both bands of ADSB.

 

[MacCool]

Well, my uAvionix B-Alt encoder showed up out of the blue yesterday. Seems to be a nice piece of work and I'm impressed with the extent to which uAvionix has gone to stand behind their product. I find myself excited to get the thing installed and see if it works, and resolves my ghost images and B-ALT failures. Unfortunately, I just had low back surgery last week so installing and testing the thing is off the list for several weeks.

 

[Treekiwi]

Well, my uAvionix B-Alt encoder showed up out of the blue yesterday. Seems to be a nice piece of work and I'm impressed with the extent to which uAvionix has gone to stand behind their product. I find myself excited to get the thing installed and see if it works, and resolves my ghost images and B-ALT failures. Unfortunately, I just had low back surgery last week so installing and testing the thing is off the list for several weeks.

View attachment 68198

Just got mine last Thursday too. Put it in today, upgraded software. All looks good. Flightaware report good, PAPR website down, so can't check that till it's up and running again. Whole process took less than an hour.
Stephen

 

[Treekiwi]

Just got mine last Thursday too. Put it in today, upgraded software. All looks good. Flightaware report good, PAPR website down, so can't check that till it's up and running again. Whole process took less than an hour.
Stephen

PAPR site up and running again. Report came back perfect. Yay!!
Stephen

 

[painless]

Installed the encoder and submitted a PAPR report. Came back with a 2.08% error in the position delta segment. I fly in a fairly remote rural area. Any others with this experience??

 

[KAdriver]

Installed the encoder and submitted a PAPR report. Came back with a 2.08% error in the position delta segment. I fly in a fairly remote rural area. Any others with this experience??

Same result with me. I called uavionix and spoke with a very knowledgeable tech. He told me they’ve had several reports of this and believe it happens when the Adsb is picked up by a single tower and lower altitude. I’m gonna attempt another PAPR test at higher altitude and in range of two tower locations.

 

[painless]

Same result with me. I called uavionix and spoke with a very knowledgeable tech. He told me they’ve had several reports of this and believe it happens when the Adsb is picked up by a single tower and lower altitude. I’m gonna attempt another PAPR test at higher altitude and in range of two tower locations.

I was wondering if it was something as simple as that. I have a flight planned for this week that should expose me to more towers. Will report back.

 

[Tandem46]

Exact same thing. Flawless Echo for 4yrs…installed encoder, flew, PAPR flagged position delta under Kinematics. What is weird is that integrity and accuracy passed on all points. Not sure how it passes one but not the other.

 

[Skid]

Exact same thing. Flawless Echo for 4yrs…installed encoder, flew, PAPR flagged position delta under Kinematics. What is weird is that integrity and accuracy passed on all points. Not sure how it passes one but not the other.

I had the same item flagged on a flight today. This is my first flight since I installed the echoalt and did the software update.

I reviewed a PAPR from a flight in June, it shows a similar failure on the kinematics delta, 3 days after I had a clean PAPR. I had contacted uAvionix support due to the failure and an additional failure, they attributed the failure to likely being in a fringe area.

 

[Tandem46]

uAvionix “Fringe” area doesn’t hold water. I live in Denver and am flying around the class Bravo and Delta airspace and getting this flag. I am definitely not in any kind of “fringe” area. Also, this didn’t happen prior to the encoder install while flying in the same Denver area.
I think I will un-install, fly, then install again, fly and try to establish a pattern.

 

[BH1166]

uAvionix “Fringe” area doesn’t hold water. I live in Denver and am flying around the class Bravo and Delta airspace and getting this flag. I am definitely not in any kind of “fringe” area. Also, this didn’t happen prior to the encoder install while flying in the same Denver area.
I think I will un-install, fly, then install again, fly and try to establish a pattern.

I don’t get bad reports, ever (2017), 100+ hours a year. I ve seen enough here to not install till needed. I pull a report monthly…..all black ink

 

[Skid]

I submitted a support ticket with uAvionix and received an email from uAvionix support this afternoon, their response is below.

We are working to resolve the kinematics errors. You may continue to fly, the FAA knows that we are looking into this anomaly.

Your patience and understanding is greatly appreciated.

 

[revenson]

I've had kinematic position errors recently too, and have NOT yet received the new device.

 

[Treekiwi]

I've just noticed that my PAPR after install did show a 0.4% error in Position Delta, but it wasn't red flagged, so must have been within limits. Looking back, this occurred occasionally before the new Alt unit.

 

[wsquare]

Also have Position Delta red box, 2.83% fail, 2 MCF. This is the only red box on PAPR. Also had some other anomalies during flight -- at this time tech support says I need to readjust my sniffer threshold to deal with the other anomalies.

 

[Darren Kerns]

Wanted to report I flew the 7 Saturday and stayed at 3000 feet. Ran ADS-B report & red flag came back for Position Delta.

I flew last night & went toward Louisville at 5500 feet then turned back west to FRH dropping down to 4500. Ran performance report.

No red flags. Had a 1.27 Position Delta box but not red flagged.

Maybe there is something about altitude & fringe areas with this new Echo ALT update.

Just wondering what others think???

Thanks
Darren Kerns
RV7 N599DT
KFRH

 

[RV6_OKLA]

I have used an echoUAT for years. At first, I had to tweak my Transponder Threshold value several times, but eventually found the sweet spot and my PAPR's have been perfect with 0% errors. But, during the last year or less, I have been getting the Kinetics Position error on some reports, but not all of them. It seems to be altitude related. I requested the echoALT but have not received it yet.
I see posts of other users that are having the same Kinetics problem that previously did not have the problem. I personally think that the FAA may have made some software adjustments to the ADS-B system that may have impacted uAvionics units. Just a thought.

 

[painless]

Flew again today, closer to Green Bay airspace but no higher than I had done before with a 2.08% position delta failure. This time, just a .75% failure in position delta. Go figure.

I guess I’ll just monitor results and see if there is any trend (?)

 

[BH1166]

Sorry for everyones issues. I have perfect reports. When my unit arrives, I'll tape to the top of the UAT box with a note. I likely will not install. I'm ok with this.

 

[texdog]

I’m getting perfect reports, but the FAA still isn’t happy. I’ve gotten 7 perfect report, but they have a column we don’t have in the report, squawk code. Mine isn’t showing up all the time. I have the MUX cable and will get it installed and hopefully it will solve the problem. I’m leaving for Wyoming this week and will get several new reports.

 

[wsquare]

The squawk code is one of my anomalies that I mentioned in post #166. Since I modified the system by adding the EchoALT, I'm on watch for any potential problems. On my first flight after modification, I carefully monitored the system. I have my iPhone running the Echo app. I have an iPad running Foreflight, connected to the Echo for ADSB In. And I have an iPad running Foreflight connected to a Stratus III for ADSB In. I use Ownship on Foreflight, and the app, to monitor ADSB Out status, flying out of class C. When released from departure control, changed Garmin 327 xponder to 1200. After about 5 tp 10 minutes, I checked the three devices. All were reading the unique squawk code departure gave me, rather than 1200. I cycled the xponder / EchoUAT off then on. All three devices gave 1200 squawk code. Landed at distant field, refueled, and returned. Returning to home field, approach gave me unique code, I entered into xponder, all three devices monitoring Echo showed 1200, all the way to landing. Checking flight aware, the outgoing flight appeared correct. The inbound flight was way off on both altitude and air speed. In addition, part way thru inbound flight I received a traffic alert, which was my own ship. I tried to pull both PAPR reports. I was able to get outbound, and it gave Position Delta error. The PAPR system could not find my inbound flight. uAvionics tech says I need to redo my sniffing threshold. It is currently 1100, which seemed to work well prior to system modification. Advised to start at 1350, and go from there.

 

[Tandem46]

Flew again this morning… PAPR totally clean so go figure. I guess at this point I’m not gonna worry about it anymore…
The Position delta was .72% with a pass today where as the other day it was 5.19% with a fail.
I’m still confused as how NIC, NACp, NACv, SIL, and SDA (which are the only parameters CFR 91.227 requires) can all pass with 0.00% failure, yet position delta can still fail.

 

[compjtc]

Regarding the kinematic position failures, uAvionix support shared with me an unofficial statement from the FAA, below. They're expecting an official letter from the FAA that can be shared.

The Delta Position kinematics flags you’ve been seeing in some of the PAPRs is not an avionics problem.

This is a problem we’re having with the ADS-B Performance Monitor which our team is working tirelessly to correct.

Please don’t make any changes to any avionics due to these delta position flags.

 

[RV6_OKLA]

Regarding the kinematic position failures, uAvionix support shared with me an unofficial statement from the FAA, below. They're expecting an official letter from the FAA that can be shared.

Thanks for posting! This supports my previous post where I believe the problem is related to the FAA's ADS-B system and not the echoUAT.

 

[compjtc]

To follow up on the issues of Kinematic Position Delta errors, last week the FAA removed this field from the PAPR report.

Old PAPR:


New PAPR:

 

[Paul 5r4]

I had not even noticed that! No wonder I'm now getting a clean report.

 

[painless]

So the FAA essentially put a piece of electrical tape over a warning light. Works for me!

 

[nightflier]

Don’t do it. I got the new Echo and the baro and nothing works. The GRT WARNING SERIAL PORT 5 no ADSB DATA. Any ideas. It worked until I put the new box in.

I have the same general problem, nothing worked after I installed the SB. Maybe someone using a GRT WS can share how they were able to get it to work. This is frustrating.

 

[texdog]

In September I got a young pilot who needed money to buy an airplane. He was recommended by a friend as being very knowledgeable about avionics. He came down and stayed at the Nut Farm with his family. He spent 4 hours in the cockpit except for 20 minutes building a wiring harness. Everything has worked for over 30 flights. He charged me $300.00, best money I’ve spent to relieve anxiety. The FAA eventually called me and told me I would be removed from the no service list. You just have to find the right person to fix it, I couldn’t and the local avionics shop didn’t want to fix it. I know you are in Cincinnati, so my guy is no help, but someone is out there.

 

[MacCool]

Well, my uAvionix B-Alt encoder showed up out of the blue yesterday. Seems to be a nice piece of work and I'm impressed with the extent to which uAvionix has gone to stand behind their product. I find myself excited to get the thing installed and see if it works, and resolves my ghost images and B-ALT failures. Unfortunately, I just had low back surgery last week so installing and testing the thing is off the list for several weeks.

View attachment 68198

I finally got around to installing the EchoUAT altitude encoder. Pretty straightforward process. EchoUAT was installed on the right wing inspection panel so I decided to forego tapping into the static system. I updated the software and firmware per uAvionix' instructions using my iPhone, then ground tested as they recommended. I flew about 30 min south and ran a PAPR, came back with no errors.

Yesterday, I flew about 30 minutes north at 2000 feet AGL, about 250 miles from the Canadian border, an area where ADS-B coverage is known to be spotty. I ran a PAPR and it came back with multiple failures. I sent the report off to [email protected] and requested a manual review, That came back promptly and confirmed that the errors were to due being in a poor coverage area at too low an altitude, and that the unit was working normally.

Re: PAPR Review Request
"Those errors are only due to loss of ADS-B coverage at lower altitudes and the ADS-B system appears to be fine for this flight. Check the ADS-B system again after a few more flights and if errors (red flags) are still contained in the PAPR report please send a note to this email address requesting further review"