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re anywhere
Keven
This is a loaded question.
To effectively use ANY system you need;
1) outside GPS antenna
2) an outside uplink or downlink antenna depending if ground or sat based system.
Note:
*more important with Sat phones where the horizon needs to be visible.
*good ignition system for ground based system due to interference.
RE displays
Most displays have weak points. The intensity of the color is measured in "NITS". Most PDA's and computer displays (laptops) do not provide this rating. You need at least 300 nits for daytime readability. The newer daylight displays are REFLECTIVE, however, they are not easily viewable at night. A hi-rez CRT displays work best. Tradeoff is power. The better daylight displays for aircraft consume lots of power due to backlighting. All portables such as ipaq have been compromised due to limited power consumption. They are getting better all the time.
You need to evaluate displays in both day and night mode to see if adequate. Some of the daylight displays cannot be adjusted for nightime and these destroy you night vision.
Last but not least are data rates. Some systems use repetative info and update hard disk. some use compressed data and update displays and some use "request" packets and provide packet data for your specific route of flight or query.
Then there is the delay factor that can really throw a monkey wrench into the equation. ..... how long to process the information after a specific request. Like cell phones, this can vary as a function of system availability (sharing).
Then there is the application. VFR ? IFR? Tactical or Avoidance? Route planning? Reliability? Usable from what altitude? NextRAD or NowRAD? Delay times from Nexrad and finally interpretation (software) that translates the data into what you see.
I assume you are thoroughly confused by now.
Bottom line ?
You get what you pay for. There is a nexrad war going with subsequent fallouts. There are systems available now for most needs. 500 dollar question ? How long will they be around?
I have a "gut" feeling that the Honeywell system with it's ground stations will win out in the long run and be "officially" adopted. In the meatime it is a gamble on what you purchase. No doubt you will be forced into a position to either upgrade it or throw it out (except for the majors such as Garmin and King). Both these have sufficient inputs and horsepower to accept serial overlay data from multiple sources and are not limited by the "box/display/MFD" itself. No doubt others such as Echoflight and Anywhere will need to quickly adopt to other overlay inputs or accelerate their performance and features if they are going to stay in the race.
At the moment the decision to go uplink or downlink depends on too many factors to mention here. They both have advantages. The sat system works great at low altitudes and the ground base systems are limited to various areas and altitudes (mainly above 5k ft). This is just a simple explanation.
IF YOU GET INTO BAD WEATHER i rather doubt you can guarantee reliable reception due to rain attenuation and/or interference from EITHER SYSTEM. They work as an input along with Stormscope, radar, eyeballs, and common sense.
This technology is improving almost daily.
Question is really tradeoffs.
How much do you want to spend now for what functions. Personal opinion is the tradeoff is between VFR systems and IFR systems. The difference being defined as reliability and functionality. None are perfect and all have limitations.
From my experience with Nexrad on board it is far better than radar. I have learned to trust it with limitations. I still will not venture near thunderstorms or use it to find holes in fronts. The longer the flight the more useful it becomes especially watching daytime heating affects during the summer time or looking for the unexpected change from forecast.
Nexrad is only one aspect. Having Metars and TAF's available is rather important as well. Regardless of the system most information will either come from Jepp or WSI. They seem to be leading the pack in data processing.
The last issue; cost of information. No one has fixed the cost of the data and there are as many "plans" as there are cell phone plans. Although some of the less expensive systems have low entry costs (hardware) there is no guarantee they will hold the prices in the future. One thing for sure...... the enduser will pay a monthly fee (system fee) and a data fee (packet cost) similiar to cell phones and I would expect this to be in the order of 30-50 dollars a month for the average use plus the cost of the database updates. What is really frustrating is the cost of keeping multiple map and gps systems updated.
I have a gut feeling that various "input" boxes will be available to feed multifunction displays and MFD manufactures will provide the interface to their displays such as Garmin. The MFD's will provide the base mapping system and gps hardware. All other peripherals are just inputs.
sorry for being long winded. Hope this helps.
Who said flying was cheap............... or simple?
Bob
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