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Uavionics question

Tom3holer

Tom3holer

MEMBER
Cape Cod
Just flew with a friend in his 210 with a receiently installed tail beacon. After departing a rule airspace airport atc said did we see another aircraft 100' below us? He said I have your squawk plus a 900 squawk below you. We immedately started to climb and made a turn but saw nothing. ATC said they were following us. We asked and was told to power recycle the xponder and the problem was solved. My friend said it had happened once before.
Just wondering if anyone has heard of this with a Uavionics unit before?
 
I have not had it happen, but I am not surprised either. When in Class B, if you don't set "ownship" in apps like forelight, you will often get traffic alerts from your plane because of the overlap of ADS-B and TIS. I have not had this at all lately, so I assume they improved it in our area or the ownship setting is working better.

sj
 
SJ I don't think that was the problem because we were not getting traffic alerts from Foreflight as there is no ADS-B in in that plane. The alerts were from ATC seeing a second xponder signal.

He had had the Garmin 330 checked out weeks before and had no other problems prior to the Uavionics install.
 
hotrod180 said:
Was there a specific problem with them?
My Tailbeacon has been working fine.
I've done several PAPR checks since I installed it 4 months ago,
and it always checks good.
Click to expand...

It's mostly the wing tip unit that's having issues. One of my friends put a tail unit on his 180. It seems to be working fine.
Specific problems are they're not passing the PAPR easily and I've had a couple of guys get letters from the FAA.
For the money I far prefer a GDL 82. I am debating what to put in my Super Cub project since it'll need a new transponder. I am leaning towards a Trig but possibly a Stratus.
 
Tom3holer said:
Just flew with a friend in his 210 with a receiently installed tail beacon. After departing a rule airspace airport atc said did we see another aircraft 100' below us? He said I have your squawk plus a 900 squawk below you. We immedately started to climb and made a turn but saw nothing. ATC said they were following us. We asked and was told to power recycle the xponder and the problem was solved. My friend said it had happened once before.
Just wondering if anyone has heard of this with a Uavionics unit before?
Click to expand...

With a uAvionics system you’re still broadcasting a regular Mode C signal from a stubby antenna, aren’t you? The tail beacon is picking up this broadcast and adding to it and then also sending out another signal, if I understand correctly how these work. If so, then a discrepancy with the altitude encoder and GPS altitude could be the issue.

When the plane is in both radar and ADSB tower coverage maybe there is a rebroadcast of the Mode C taking place that the controller saw?

I have a Mode C Becker transponder in my Cub with a GDL 82 Out system. Just one antenna like this. But I’ve seen my N number show up on my In a few times with a 100 foot separation. It lasts a few minutes and then goes away.
 
spinner2 said:
With a uAvionics system you’re still broadcasting a regular Mode C signal from a stubby antenna, aren’t you? The tail beacon is picking up this broadcast and adding to it and then also sending out another signal, if I understand correctly how these work. If so, then a discrepancy with the altitude encoder and GPS altitude could be the issue.

When the plane is in both radar and ADSB tower coverage maybe there is a rebroadcast of the Mode C taking place that the controller saw?

I have a Mode C Becker transponder in my Cub with a GDL 82 Out system. Just one antenna like this. But I’ve seen my N number show up on my In a few times with a 100 foot separation. It lasts a few minutes and then goes away.
Click to expand...

That is funny... traffic traffic!!! RA from yourself LOL
 
I have not had a single Uavionix work correctly yet, I have 5 out there. Azetc would not transmit, 2 warranty units still would not work. In want a Stratus. Cessna 150, had noise, cessna 152 does not transmit, still trying to figure that one out, cessna 182, noise. Not impressed
 
My first SkyBeacon was an early production unit, and it consistently transmitted NIC errors after the first few flights. uAvionix finally replaced the unit with a new one, and so far (four flights) it is working fine. uAvionix was blaming a bad ground for the failure of the first one, but the ground was good.

MTV
 
Last edited:
mvivion said:
My first TailBeacon was an early production unit, and it consistently transmitted NIC errors after the first few flights. uAvionix finally replaced the unit with a new one, and so far (four flights) it is working fine. uAvionix was blaming a bad ground for the failure of the first one, but the ground was good.

MTV
Click to expand...

Maybe a bad internal ground? I've seen that with some of our electronics at work.
 
CamTom12 said:
Maybe a bad internal ground? I've seen that with some of our electronics at work.
Click to expand...

My bad, it was a SkyBeacon, not a tail beacon. But, yes, Cam, I assume it was an internal ground fault. uAvionix techs said an intermittent ground was what generally caused NIC errors. Mine consistently transmitted 23% error rate.

The new unit seems to be working fine. I downloaded PAPR data from the first three flights, and they were all clean, so I sent an email to my new best friend in the FAA. A couple days later, he noted that he'd examined my latest reports and that the issue appeared to be resolved, and he turned my signal back on (my terminology, not his) in their system. In other words, I can legally fly in rule airspace now.

I'm still downloading a PAPR for every flight for a while.

MTV
 
astjp2 said:
I have not had a single Uavionix work correctly yet, I have 5 out there. Azetc would not transmit, 2 warranty units still would not work. In want a Stratus. Cessna 150, had noise, cessna 152 does not transmit, still trying to figure that one out, cessna 182, noise. Not impressed
Click to expand...

I installed a Tailbeacon back in November (?), works as promised.
I check the PAPR occasionally, just checked on results from last monday's flight--
well within acceptable parameters.
 
Can you tell in the air if ADS-B is functioning properly? Or do you wait to hear from FAA?
 
astjp2 said:
I have not had a single Uavionix work correctly yet, I have 5 out there. Azetc would not transmit, 2 warranty units still would not work. In want a Stratus. Cessna 150, had noise, cessna 152 does not transmit, still trying to figure that one out, cessna 182, noise. Not impressed
Click to expand...

wireweinie said:
Sigh . . .

Nope. Not going to do it . . .

Web
Click to expand...
OK I'll say it. This sounds like an installation or set up error.
 
cubdrvr said:
Can you tell in the air if ADS-B is functioning properly? Or do you wait to hear from FAA?
Click to expand...

Wait an hour after you fly, then go to this site, fill in the data, and hit submit.
You will get an ADS-B performance report in about an hour via email.
I check mine maybe once a month or so--
if your set-up isn't working correctly, good way to get a heads-up that an FAA nasty-gram might be inbound..

[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://adsbperformance.faa.gov/paprrequest.aspx[/FONT]
 
cubdrvr said:
Can you tell in the air if ADS-B is functioning properly? Or do you wait to hear from FAA?
Click to expand...

If you can get a cell signal, bring up flightaware, it will show 978 mhz transmitters, most of the other trackers only show 1090 mhz.

I have flightaware setup to notify me when my n number shows up, caught every flight so far with the GDL82.
 
mvivion said:
My first SkyBeacon was an early production unit, and it consistently transmitted NIC errors after the first few flights. uAvionix finally replaced the unit with a new one, and so far (four flights) it is working fine. uAvionix was blaming a bad ground for the failure of the first one, but the ground was good.

MTV
Click to expand...
i spent about an hour total on the phone with their Tech reps over the one in the Aztec which had a 99% nic failure, they tried to blame the ground, but I sent them pics and they admitted it should have been a goo ground. something was just not compatible, the other ones I sold were installed by other mechanics and they all have had some sort of problem. Most were static in their headsets, one was having problems with the sky sensor too. 3 avionics shops I deal with won’t even touch them anymore. It’s a great idea just real finicky on install.
 
Yes, that first SkyBeacon installed a swishing noise into my radios, at least intermittently. I called uAvionix and asked about that, and they said it was probably a poor ground somewhere in my avionics.....Starting to see a trend here.

Interestingly, however, this new beacon does not (so far) install that same sound.

While the techs at uAvionix were adamant that I had a poor ground with the airplane, and that was what was causing all the problems I had, in fact, I'm convinced now that it was that early unit.

I personally know at least three other folks who installed early versions of the SkyBeacon, that had to be replaced, with similar problems.

I'm hoping that they've fixed some of the problems with these things now.

MTV
 
I have strobe "swishing" with my installation. Not all frequencies, and not even consistently for any given frequency. I talked with a UAvionics Rep at the NW Aviation Trade Show here today, and he suggested a ferrite choke or capacitor on the power lead. That sounds like a band-aid to me. He also suggested to call tech support, so I guess I need to get off my butt and do that.
 
Gordon Misch said:
I have strobe "swishing" with my installation. Not all frequencies, and not even consistently for any given frequency. I talked with a UAvionics Rep at the NW Aviation Trade Show here today, and he suggested a ferrite choke or capacitor on the power lead. That sounds like a band-aid to me. He also suggested to call tech support, so I guess I need to get off my butt and do that.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we’ll....prepare to stay on the line forever. And maybe they’ll call back if you leave a message. Didn’t call me back.

And, yes, they gave me the same line, and I had the same experience. I don’t believe it. My new SkyBeacon doesn’t do it. Old one did. Nothing else changed.

Oh, and my unit (which made the noise) transmitted 23 to 25 % errors as well. New one doesn’t. Correlation?

MTV
 
I haven't received any error messages Mike, but the noise is annoying. Thanks for sharing your experience!
 
Gordon Misch said:
I haven't received any error messages Mike, but the noise is annoying. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Click to expand...

Gordon,

My first unit passed its first few flights, including the one required for the FAA rebate. After a couple months, the errors started.

Keep checking your reports. I didn’t and got the call from the FAA.

MTV
 
Gordon Misch said:
...I talked with a UAvionics Rep at the NW Aviation Trade Show here today,......
Click to expand...

Gordon, did you see their newest gizmo?
It's a Tailbeacon with kind of a two-prong antennae, 1090ES with "diversity",
so it works with both satellite- & ground-based systems as will probably be required in Canada.
It's also a transponder!
Unfortunately, it needs to lash up (maybe wirelessly, not sure) to a remote device on the panel,
such as their new AV-20 or AV-30 or similar, for setting the squawk etc.
I asked if they had just a simple remote controller for it, but no.
It's brand new, I just saw an on-line write-up on them last week, so dunno if they're approved yet.
Price is gonna be about $2500- only 500 more than a tailbeacon.
I told the gal at their booth that I really liked their innovative, out of the box thinking--
maybe their gear has some issues (my tailbeacon hasn't),
but the whole one-wire installation, self-contained, program with your cellphone thing is pretty cool.
 
Wingwrench said:
If you can get a cell signal, bring up flightaware, it will show 978 mhz transmitters, most of the other trackers only show 1090 mhz.
I have flightaware setup to notify me when my n number shows up, caught every flight so far with the GDL82.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the FlightAware tip-- I know FightRadar24 only sees 1090.
I just checked my own tailnumber on FlightAware--
I don't remember doing it, but apparently I requested to be blocked from tracking.
IMHO it's a little more trouble to request a PAPR, but better--
Flight Aware or FR24 don't tell you whether your ADS-B is operating within parameters.
 
If you block your info through the FAA then flight aware can’t see your flights.

I just did last week and my flights this weekend haven’t shown up yet.
 
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