I thought I would share my first outing with SkyEcho in my D62b Rollason Condor G-AVOH - that has no transponder fitted, so this seemed to be the cheapest way to make it electronically conspicuous to an internationally recognised standard. Ordered through Amazon the SkyEcho cost £600 all in and was delivered very quickly.
Here is the SkyEcho on top of the instrument panel mounted with velcro. It runs on its own power (I had it on for over 3 hours and it was still going strong). It needs no leads and doesn’t have any bits or dongles ready to drop off into the bottom of my Condor or Supermunk. It is linked to SkyDemon on an iPad over wifi.
Here is a screen shot after the first few minutes of flight out of Hinton. You can see G-RATE, an AA-5A about to go into Coventry and a variety of commercial aircraft all on ADS-B.
After a while I thought I would have a look on the iPhone to see if I was tracking on FR24. I was and these 2 pictures show the SkyDemon and the FR24 screenshots.
I then went South to see if I could see any weather from the UATs - I didn’t see anything, but thinking about it, that’s not surprising as the weather was lovely! However, I thought I would continue South of Halton to have a look at the increased numbers of ADS- B traffic in the London TMA to see what it looked like on SkyDemon. You can also see what th traffic warning looks like on the SkyDemon (no conflict as traffic is green and 7400ft above!)
I also took the SkyEcho off of the front and put it on the parcel shelf. It works fine and is no longer extra clutter up front. It also helps Garfield with his look out!
Finally, I had to make an urgent modification to my flying gloves to use SkyDemon’s features on the iPad. I might call it the “Churchill Mod”!
Overall, I am VERY pleased with the SkyEcho and I would recommend it to anyone without a Mode-S ES transponder fitted. I really hope that dual transmission with Mode A and Mode S without ES is going to approved soon (how is the trial going?). I also look forward to Wycombe Air Park getting the UAT as that should get me coverage in the wilds of the Vale of Aylesbury.
Thank you Father Christmas, SkyDemon and Uavionix
Best
Gaz