On Thursday, May 7, 2015 at 12:32:11 AM UTC-4, Andy Blackburn wrote:
On Tuesday, May 5, 2015 at 10:19:59 PM UTC-7, Mike Schumann wrote:

If you want a fully functional ADS-B IN / OUT system for under $1,000 you'll probably have to wait until this fall. These systems are going to use iPAD or iPHONE apps to provide the user interface. (I'm not counting the cost of iPhone / iPAD in the price of the system, as most people have these devices anyway).

If I'm flying a glider and I want to invest in avionics for anti-collision I wouldn't invest in anything that doesn't sent/receive Flarm protocol if I'm worried about gliders since the odds a glider is going to have anything other than Flarm is low. If I'm worried about fast jets I wouldn't invest in anything that doesn't light up both TCAS and SSR because they are faster it is much better for them to see me. That requires a transponder. Those considerations make anything UAT-only mostly useless as it depends on ADS-R to get even half of the job done. For GA I remain skeptical that UAT will outsell 1090ES, even in GA.

9B

The question is, do you want to end up with an avionics package that doesn't see UAT ADS-B OUT equipped traffic? It's hard to predict how much of the GA or UAV fleet will go down that road, but it could be a pretty significant percentage if there is a significant price difference between UAT and 1090ES ADS-B OUT solutions.

That's not to say that FLARM isn't a good solution for glider pilots that are flying in competitions. FLARM is specifically designed for collision avoidance for aircraft that are flying at close quarters. ADS-B is designed to give people a heads up so they can stay far away from any conflicting traffic before it becomes a threat. It's really unfortunate that the PowerFLARM folks only solved part of the problem rather than come up with a comprehensive solution that takes into account the UAT / 1090ES architecture of the US ADS-B system.