On Monday, May 8, 2017 at 6:51:36 PM UTC-7, Dave Benjamin wrote:
Is anyone aware of any near term plans for Power Flarm with an ADS-B out solution?

I fly airspace fairly congested with light GA aircraft, and would really like that powered traffic to be able to see me as well as me seeing them.

With most US powered aircraft being required to have ADS-B in 2020, addition of ADS-B out seems a logical evolution for Power Flarm.

There has been a lots of stuff discussed on r.a.s in the past about using PowerFLARM with 1090ES Out system from other vendors. many existing threads on the issues involved, issues with certified GPS costs, how TABS/TSO-C199 might change that (but can't today in certified aircraft etc.). And lots of past discussion about why the GPS unit inside a PowerFLARM can't be used for ADS-B Out to meet 2020 requirements and also does not meet TABS requirements, e.g. is not TSO-C199 approved or claimed to "meet requirements of"... and so on... I'm not going to rehash all that again. If you want specific advice you need to tell us what type of glider and if it's certified or experimental.

If the question is should FLARM develop a Mode S/1090ES Out product? That seems like an illogical market for FLARM to pursue--FLARM is a small design company, not a certified avionics manufacturer. They very smarty pioneered great technology using unregulated spectrum. They have nothing technically to add to pure ADS-B Out than any other vendor, many of who are actually set up to be able to manufacture certified products. And their partner manufacturer AirAvionics for example already sell 1090ES Out equipment in Europe. FLARM is unlikely to compete with their major partners like that. If you want to see AirAvionic sell their existing 1090ES Out solution in the USA you should check with them. But already equivalent or lower-cost 1090ES Out solutions exist in the USA market from vendors with significant presence here already.

For glider uses in the USA who want ADS-B Out the leading vendors you should be looking at is Trig at least for the Mode-S 1090ES out part... and then follow their advice on the GPS source. They are here today with products and support. For certified aircraft you are still screwed on GPS source costs, who knows, maybe one day there will be light at the end of the tunnel with non-TSO GPS sources for ADS-B Out even in certified aircraft.

PowerFLARM has no market in the power aircraft market in the USA, the lack of support for ADS-R and TIS-B reception makes PowerFLARM a non-starter. If the USA GA market was important to them they would have addressed that. The benefit of the wonderful FLARM technology overweighs that limitations to glider users, it won't for typical power aircraft users.