[johnm]

Well, @johnm. I said;

I worry that the point/benefit of EC is being missed by many.

After your last post, I'm more convinced!

It ain't TCAS, so audible warnings are just attention getters. I already get audible warnings from Skydemon, they are just background noise at the moment so they don't interfere with ATC exchanges etc., they just prompt me to glance at the screen to see if I need to react.

I may take a different view once I have some real practical experience but on the 2 trips I've done so far I can see some aircraft in the scan and quickly assess whether they might become a factor based on heading and altitude.

[Tim Dawson]

...though Skydemon prattles in the background...

We worked very hard on our prattling, and consider it the most relevant prattling available, thank you very much.

[PeteSpencer]

...though Skydemon prattles in the background...

We worked very hard on our prattling, and consider it the most relevant prattling available, thank you very much.

And very welcome the prattling is too: It reliably tells me when I've entered our airstrip, which immediately confirms my bluetooth to headset gizmo is working in preparation for the forthcoming SE2/Flarm/Skydemon enhanced flight.

[russp]

In terms of pilot workload in the cruise it's next to nothing added to do.

The potential is for lots more time head in, acting as your own pseudo-controller.
There's an insidious attraction to that but it's a concept that makes me quite uncomfortable.

I mostly get your issue although I actually see it as much less of an issue than head down in charts and flight computers trying to work out track corrections with dead reckoning nav and that seems to have been accepted since time immemorial. For me it's simply a 2 sec job to move the AP heading line to miss the gaggle showing up 10 miles ahead on my panel mounted moving map and the occasional glance back to ensure I'm still going to miss them. Done with enough notice it doesn't even add much to the flight time and its certainly a lot less distracting than the 'where the f has that glider gone' moments when there are 3 or 4 close to you.

[johnm]

...though Skydemon prattles in the background...

We worked very hard on our prattling, and consider it the most relevant prattling available, thank you very much.

That may well be true and it certainly serves to get enough of my attention to look at the visual cues on my ipad, which are very clear

[Mike Tango]

I wonder if there's an opportunity for currently under-utilised controllers to park themselves in a spare seat onboard, EC connected iPad in hand, and provide a bespoke personal radar service inflight?

I might mention it to NATS, could be a nice earner in their current cash strapped times.

[riverrock]

There are maybe a few spare consoles in Swanwick. Pay in advance for a discrete frequency and get the benefit of their primary and secondary radar network while staying Covid Secure ?

[Mike Tango]

There are maybe a few spare consoles in Swanwick. Pay in advance for a discrete frequency and get the benefit of their primary and secondary radar network while staying Covid Secure ?

Possibly, worth investigating, though the controllers might also enjoy a nice day out the office.

[Rob P]

We worked very hard on our prattling, and consider it the most relevant prattling available, thank you very much.

Ban him @Tim Dawson

Rob P

[riverrock]

There are maybe a few spare consoles in Swanwick. Pay in advance for a discrete frequency and get the benefit of their primary and secondary radar network while staying Covid Secure ?

Possibly, worth investigating, though the controllers might also enjoy a nice day out the office.

Are there still some controllers who have never been in a GA aircraft? Sounds like an opportunity...

[malcolmfrost]

Too much 'Heads in' is why I personally don't advocate having traffic on a Nav App.
Traffic on a Nav App creates too much clutter and therefore requires too much of a 'Heads in' approach to assimilate what is shown on the tablet and going on around you instead of 'eyes out'.
A dedicated traffic display in the eyeline, glareshield, or just under is the way to go.

Like your phone connected to SE running SD in a £10 phone holder from Halfords?

[Miscellaneous]

It ain't TCAS, so audible warnings are just attention getters...

With your dismissal of anything a lowly VFR pilot could say and the above comment it seems your renowned powers for critical thinking may have been temporarily disabled.

I would suggest you think through the purpose and best use of SE2.

To try an aviation based analogy I was going to suggest your thinking is akin to a parachutist not bothering with the main chute, but pulling the reserve every jump. Then I thought a closer analogy would be a parachutist not taking a main chute on the account it is just something else to get in his way.

[Shoestring Flyer]

Too much 'Heads in' is why I personally don't advocate having traffic on a Nav App.
Traffic on a Nav App creates too much clutter and therefore requires too much of a 'Heads in' approach to assimilate what is shown on the tablet and going on around you instead of 'eyes out'.
A dedicated traffic display in the eyeline, glareshield, or just under is the way to go.

Like your phone connected to SE running SD in a £10 phone holder from Halfords?

I assume you mean just the radar screen?
If that is the best you can afford then great! It at least keeps traffic off the Nav App.

[johnm]

@Miscellaneous I'm basically trying to develop a hypothesis to test. I want to add Skyecho receiver into my normal SOP. At the moment I include Skydemon in my scan and haven't needed the audio prompts. However it may be that I need to get a blue tooth headset and incorporate some or all of them them at some point. At the moment I prefer not, but Skyecho might change that or I might just chuck it in the bin and rely on Traffic Service as I do now, time will tell.

Edited to add:

Is there a Skydemon dictionary anywhere that will tell me what it says

[PeteSpencer]

@Miscellaneous I'm basically trying to develop a hypothesis to test. I want to add Skyecho receiver into my normal SOP. At the moment I include Skydemon in my scan and haven't needed the audio prompts. However it may be that I need to get a blue tooth headset and incorporate some or all of them them at some point. At the moment I prefer not, but Skyecho might change that or I might just chuck it in the bin and rely on Traffic Service as I do now, time will tell.

This is cheaper than buying a £700 Bluetooth headset : just bung it inline in the headset cable and you’re good to go


Works a treat: Best 44 bucks I’ve spent in ages