Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
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#1694480
Just made me think that no matter how good my eyes are, I am relying on my grey matter to interpret it correctly.

Blind spot tests are always intriguing. I can’t help but regret the ordure heaped on Prince Philip for his driving gaffe and blamed on his age, rather than what might simply have been a blind spot event which might have affected anyone.

http://learntoflyblog.com/2017/01/09/hu ... lind-spot/
#1694535
jarm69 wrote:The downside was the number of gliders that it didn't pick up, including the one that circled above us about 200 ft above for quite a while, that wasn't pleasant especially as for much of the time we couldn't see him.


You must have been circling 200 ft below this glider for the same period then?! Hope you turned the same way - the first to arrive sets the direction... of course, if you were not there thermalling too, you could simply have diverted your track a bit to allow some space for you both. With the added advantage of applying some bank to be more visible to others.

A turning (thermalling) glider is much easier to see than one in the cruise between climbs. Even if you don’t see it for the full turn, you should see it during at least part of the turn.

Fit FLARM. Or get a Sky Echo 2 (and pay the small licence fee) and you will see most gliders from their FLARM transmission. If you’ve got FLARM, they can see you too!
Last edited by TouringTuggy on Tue May 28, 2019 1:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
gaznav, Charliesixtysix, Nick and 1 others liked this
#1694566
I have read the posts on this thread with great interest. I can see how Pilot Aware could be a very useful extra pair of eyes etc. However....to me it would be important to have audio alerts only for those aircraft that are or might be a threat. I don't want to spend valuable time staring at my tablet when I should be looking out of the window. My problem is that, in common I guess with many folk on here, I fly rental aircraft so any solution has to be something that I can easily move from aircraft to aircraft and not require any permanent connections. At the moment all I have is a basic David Clark headset and Skydemon on my tablet. I would welcome advice from others who have solved this without spending a fortune.

EG
#1694571
Erm.. A PAW Rosetta set up is as simple as plugging it into a USB power pack and dumping it onto the seat next to you, though securing it somewhere where the aerials can 'see' the sky is better. You then run a 1/4" cable to your intercom aux in, and Bob's yer uncle, audio alerts!

If anybody want to whinge about there not being somewhere obvious to secure it, or moan about there being a cable present, feel free to include other compatible whinges such as the way seat belts restrict your movement and how motorcyle helmets cause more deaths than they prevent due to how they restrict vision.
#1694574
Earl Grey wrote:I have read the posts on this thread with great interest. I can see how Pilot Aware could be a very useful extra pair of eyes etc. However....to me it would be important to have audio alerts only for those aircraft that are or might be a threat. I don't want to spend valuable time staring at my tablet when I should be looking out of the window. My problem is that, in common I guess with many folk on here, I fly rental aircraft so any solution has to be something that I can easily move from aircraft to aircraft and not require any permanent connections. At the moment all I have is a basic David Clark headset and Skydemon on my tablet. I would welcome advice from others who have solved this without spending a fortune.

EG


Same boat here, been trying for a while to find a good solution for rental aircraft without an aux socket/Bluetooth.
Lots of suggestions were to fit a splitter via one of the headset jacks. Be aware that most of the splitters available on eBay etc. are for the headphones and either don’t work at all or produce a very, very quiet and crackly ‘voice’ in just your headset. The version I tried using the correct mic socket just ended up permanently transmitting when plugged in and was also mega quiet (I’m sure some electronics guru could sort it though).

Has a brief flirtation with portable speaker in the PAW jack sat on the back shelf - worked a treat in the air. Big downside was you needed the volume at max and when someone taxied past prior to start the warning was so loud it scared the **** out of me! :shock:

Next plan is to try a set of cheap Bluetooth in-ear headphones under the DCs (just sat in the cups) and linked to SD. Will see how that works.
Earl Grey liked this
#1694588
@Earl Grey

I use a set of ~£5 blue tooth earpieces from Ebay worn in my ears and with my headset over them. They pick up the bluetooth traffic warnings from SkyDemon (which has a great algorithm to only alert you to serious conflictions) and transmits them into your ears - it also does airspace warning too.
#1694631
Earl Grey wrote:
gaznav wrote:PS. Also it works for SkyEcho, PilotAware or FLARM depending on what you use for SkyDemon.


Excellent thanks. Are they OK with standard as opposed to noise cancelling headsets?

EG


As Ian said, they work with any ‘over ear’ headsets :thumright:

This is the sort I’ve been using - no issues. Don’t need to worry about the small magnets either but keep them away from the compass!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sports-In-Ea ... 2351020392
Earl Grey liked this
#1694653
Maxthelion wrote:Erm.. A PAW Rosetta set up is as simple as plugging it into a USB power pack and dumping it onto the seat next to you, though securing it somewhere where the aerials can 'see' the sky is better. You then run a 1/4" cable to your intercom aux in, and Bob's yer uncle, audio alerts!

If anybody want to whinge about there not being somewhere obvious to secure it, or moan about there being a cable present, feel free to include other compatible whinges such as the way seat belts restrict your movement and how motorcyle helmets cause more deaths than they prevent due to how they restrict vision.


Errrr, don't have a "seat next to me" :D

Errrr, don't have have an "Intercom" - Single seater :D

If I wear a parachute, and one day I need it, it is certainly safer. If I use EC and one day it stops me hitting something it is certainly safer. But both offer other safety compromises.

A parachute makes it harder for me to climb out of a burning aeroplane on the ground.

EC makes it too easy for me to delegate collision avoidance to the electronics, meaning that I am (may be) at increased risk of collision.

I am pretty sure that one day EC will be the safer option. I am also pretty sure that at the moment the safety benefits are over-hyped.

I am certain that if I went flying with EC it would "see" aeroplanes that I missed in my lookout, but that only matters if I was going to hit one of them. The Sky is indeed Big, the chances of hitting another aeroplane are, fortunately, small.

On this forum the most common reaction to EC, I think, is that it is the most important safety advance on the horizon. I wish people would spend more time on flying skills, airmanship and lookout rather than gadgets.

I am certain that EC offers value, but I think that it is too often overstated and, as I said in an earlier post, may, in future, come at a cost to the freedom of flight which I value highly.
#1694706
TouringTuggy wrote:
jarm69 wrote:The downside was the number of gliders that it didn't pick up, including the one that circled above us about 200 ft above for quite a while, that wasn't pleasant especially as for much of the time we couldn't see him.


You must have been circling 200 ft below this glider for the same period then?! Hope you turned the same way - the first to arrive sets the direction... of course, if you were not there thermalling too, you could simply have diverted your track a bit to allow some space for you both.


We did bank and alter course, but not having windows in the roof, we lost him for a considerable time even when performing a descending S turn to try and enable either my passenger or myself to regain a visual, those little elongated oval windows in the roof of one of the Aerobats I fly are a marvelous idea. :D
#1694708
flybymike wrote:Blind spot tests are always intriguing. I can’t help but regret the ordure heaped on Prince Philip for his driving gaffe and blamed on his age, rather than what might simply have been a blind spot event which might have affected anyone.


There were numerous test at the event similar to the one I described, all showing just how unreliable our eyes can actually be, there was also a room playing a 10 second random white noise test, no one could hear anything intelligible in the noise, until a large screen flashed into life with a number on it, suddenly everyone in the room could hear the number being repeated, but after the test we were informed that the noise was the same clip repeated over and over.
#1694737
On this forum the most common reaction to EC, I think, is that it is the most important safety advance on the horizon. I wish people would spend more time on flying skills, airmanship and lookout rather than gadgets.


The two are not mutually exclusive. There's certainly no reason not to spend time on flying skills, airmanship and lookout while still having an EC device in the aircraft with you. The fact is that it may stop you clonking into someone while you were doing those other things.
Last edited by PaulSS on Mon May 20, 2019 3:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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