On-Star*

Mark James Boyd wrote:
Does anybody know how much On-Star costs and would
they consider taking on
aviation customers? It's got to beat ELT.
JJ Sinclair


What I don't get is why someone doesn't just make
an ELT that speaks the GPS coordinates (and
tail #, etc. entered by the user) over the 121.5
frequency.

No decoding, no satellites, just an ELT that
also has a voice and tells it over the 121.5 freq
every few minutes. Mate a $100 GPS to a
$200 ELT to a text-to-voice device. Doesn't
this seem much simpler?

And talk about easy to find the false transmissions!
Heck, you got the coordinates AND the tail number?
Shouldn't be hard to find THAT guy at the airport
bar...

A clever pilot could adapt his ELT to this, as long as it was one with
voice input. Buy a pocket pc that has text to speech capability, install
a GPS card in it, connect the headphone output to the ELT's microphone
input and you have the basic system. When you crashed, the ELT would
start transmitting it's signal, and the "voice" from the pc.

OK, there'd be some details:

- you'd want to parse the data stream from the GPS, so only your ID and
the coordinates were spoken
- probably want to have the pc key the microphone and transmit voice
only once a minute
- you'd need power to the PC during normal flight, and maybe a larger
battery for it so it'd last as long as the ELT battery if it lost power
from the glider in the crash
- it would need to be mounted and connected carefully so it would be
likely to work after a crash

It might be easier and cheaper to buy one of personal locators that has
a GPS in it, and figure out how to make a crash activate it.
--
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Replace "SPAM" with "charter" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

JJ Sinclair wrote:


Does anybody know how much On-Star costs and would they consider taking on
aviation customers? It's got to beat ELT.
JJ Sinclair

There is a satellite based system developed by Orbcomm (Orbcomm.com)
that has a data link for weather graphics, email, and so forth. For
aviation use, the system is incorporated into products by Avidyne, Echo
Flight, SKytrac, and Garmin. The system can provide automatic flight
following, so that the flight can be followed on a web site. It'd be
great for locating a downed pilot or following contestants during a
conttest, but the unit look big, complicated, and expensive.
--
-----
Replace "SPAM" with "charter" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

At 21:42 18 November 2003, Eric Greenwell wrote:
JJ Sinclair wrote:


Does anybody know how much On-Star costs and would
they consider taking on
aviation customers? It's got to beat ELT.
JJ Sinclair

There is a satellite based system developed by Orbcomm
(Orbcomm.com)
that has a data link for weather graphics, email, and
so forth. For
aviation use, the system is incorporated into products
by Avidyne, Echo
Flight, SKytrac, and Garmin. The system can provide
automatic flight
following, so that the flight can be followed on a
web site. It'd be
great for locating a downed pilot or following contestants
during a
conttest, but the unit look big, complicated, and expensive.
--
-----
Replace 'SPAM' with 'charter' to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA


Looks like just the thing from Avidyne!

FlightMax EX500

High resolution 5.4' diagonal display with integrated
datalink, terrain and water base map with man-made
obstacles, curved flight paths when interfaced with
a Garmin 400/500 series GPS, traffic awareness when
interfaced to the Goodrich Skywatch/HP TAS, the Ryan
TCAD 9900B/BX or the Bendix/King KTA-870 TAS, and a
Goodrich WX-500 Stormscope interface.

Retail price $8,995