In our TB20 the Bendix KMH880 Traffic system needs repair or replacement – since the fixed cost repair is fairly similar in cost to a new GTS800 I wonder if anyone here has already done the comparison (or has another recommendation) – I’m struggling to weigh up their relative merits.
I know there was a slightly clunky terrain warning system on the KMH880 – I don’t see that Garmin includes terrain warnings? Any advice on alternatives would also be appreciated.
Our panel is above and it’d like the traffic displayed on the Aspen which both should do.
Also I was considering the merits of FLARM as well as ADS-B – I can’t see that you can have both in one device?
Thanks for any insight or info :)
I have no answer to any of your question, but wow, that’s one hell of a panel you have there! ;-)
The GTS800 does ADS-B IN as well as active TAS.
This is worth a read for the general background. It describes my Avidyne TAS605 and compares it with the other systems. That can be upgraded for ADS-B-IN but since that is certified it will show only certified ADS-B OUT targets, which is currently almost nobody in light GA.
We have many past threads on these topics. A search digs up loads of them and there is a huge amount of good info there.
I believe there is no way to merge FLARM and ADS-B IN and display it on your panel hardware. Also there is no way to display uncertified ADS-B IN on your (or any) panel hardware. Probably there is a tablet solution – if you can work out a way to get audio warnings from that via the aircraft intercom which is obviously necessary for traffic.
For a different TAS, look at the L3 Lynx. That’s probably the best TAS system around today.
@wigglyamp do you still work in avionics?
Peter wrote:
For a different TAS, look at the L3 Lynx. That’s probably the best TAS system around today.
The Lynx certainly looks like a good choice with a simplified installation, but it has the same limitation as the older Skywatch and the Avidyne TAS6xx – it doesn’t provide full 360 coverage above and below the aircraft. The GTS800 (and similarly the Honeywell KTA870) when used with dual directional antennas offer the best cover with no loss of targets due to airframe screening. In the OPs case, fitting a GTS800 would give him the best solution and probably most of the existing wiring can be re-used with just connector changes.
@wigglyamp do you still work in avionics?
Dabbling a bit with installation support and certification to keep the brain alive and pay to fly the RV. I was working with your A&P recently fixing an autopilot. Not planning to get back to the former level of big installations or writing new STCs.
Thanks for the very helpful responses – I had a good read of the previous threads too – in summary For the extra few £k I would be gaining ADS-B in ( which in future might be very useful but as at today few GA threats emit) but losing the GPWS (Terrain).
Hmmm tough choice. Would those-who-know expect the ADS-B emitting targets to show up anyway on the TAS (albeit with less info)?
The two times last year I was very grateful for TAS were both other aircraft flying exact reciprocal courses (I assume on autopilot) using the limited waypoints that get you safely round the London TMA.
It is simply impossible to make an objective safety case for traffic awareness, because
But, if you want the extra level of “warm feeling”, nothing gets anywhere near an active TAS like you have. Of all the EC (electronic conspicuity) devices, a plain old transponder is by far the most common one. Even with many non-transponding aircraft (always been such, and more these days) you still “see” some 50% of targets.
I am sure wigglyamp is 100% right about the above/below coverage (he is UK’s most clever avionics guy by a big margin) even though I had never heard of that angle before and neither anyone in the avionics business ever mentioned it. My TAS605 indeed goes “blind” directly above/below. However, it would be an extremely rare scenario where traffic will remain hidden in that way (e.g. somebody climbing up directly below you) for a long time. IME, having seen mine and other systems, what matters much more is basically correct placement of the antennae.
If I was doing this again I would go for the Lynx or the Garmin. The Lynx seems much cheaper.
I think emitting power (and range) of GTS800 and KTA870 are different.
Antenna will be different too.
Just for your information, my computer (KTA810 ie only TAS and no terrain) died last year. Honeywell applied a flat fee for a replacement unit (with return core) of 3300€ without VAT.
Not cheap, but it certainly would have not justified switching to GTS.
I fly one aircraft with Garmin and one with Avidyne TAS, so can make a reasonable comparison.
Garmin allows you to identify individual aircraft.
Does it show G-reg callsigns?
It is possible but quite involved to do this for other than N-regs; see here. An an example you would need to scrape data off the G-INFO database with a script which grabs the Mode S IDs And what about D F and other regs? And then it would need to be regularly updated because it is a lookup database, not an algorithm like N-reg uses.