ADS-B

[jrenwick]

After the second flight in my Swift with the Appareo ESG, I've qualified for the rebate. The first flight produced "Air on Ground" failures in the PAPR report, which means that the equipment was erroneously sending "in flight" messages while it was still on the ground. I was taxiing too fast. This is a bug in the ESG software, which is supposed to be fixed at some point in the future. To prevent the failure, I pulled the circuit breaker for the ESG until I was ready for takeoff. After landing, I shut it down again after turning off the runway. This isn't necessary for every flight -- just the certification flight.

The certification flight just has to be at least 30 minutes duration, in "rule airspace." I did it beneath Minneapolis' Class B airspace, and within the 30-NM Mode C veil. I've heard, but have not verified, that you can go outside of "rule" airspace as long as there's coverage.

I have a Stratus 2 receiver in the plane, and I run Foreflight on an iPad Mini. My intercom setup has a music input jack, and I connected that to the audio output jack on the iPad. The result is that now I'm getting audio alerts for nearby traffic -- something Foreflight will do for you if it sees you have ADS-B Out. I find that's very helpful!

One serious drawback to this setup, I've found, is that if your cabin gets too hot the iPad will overheat and shut itself down. That happened to me upon arrival at Oshkosh last July on a very warm Sunday afternoon. I had to do a high-speed taxi for most of the length of runway 36, and I was too busy to open the window until I got to the end. By that time, the iPad had powered off and I lost the record of my flight.

Stay cool!

John

[cessna170bdriver]

...
One serious drawback to this setup, I've found, is that if your cabin gets too hot the iPad will overheat and shut itself down. That happened to me upon arrival at Oshkosh last July on a very warm Sunday afternoon. I had to do a high-speed taxi for most of the length of runway 36, and I was too busy to open the window until I got to the end. By that time, the iPad had powered off and I lost the record of my flight.

Stay cool!

John

A record of your flight is recorded in the Stratus. You can upload it to your iPad post flight.

[bagarre]

The temperature warning triggers at 113* Fahrenheit. The only time I've seen it is when I left it out in direct sunlight on a hot summer day.

[170C]

Sporty's will sell you a cooling unit for your iPad to prevent this condition. I have a friend who liked the idea, but he is building one himself for tons less cost.

[jrenwick]

...
A record of your flight is recorded in the Stratus. You can upload it to your iPad post flight.

Thanks, Miles! I'll see if it's still there.

John

[jrenwick]

Sporty's will sell you a cooling unit for your iPad to prevent this condition. I have a friend who liked the idea, but he is building one himself for tons less cost.

Thanks, Frank, I didn't know about those. I don't regard the iPad as essential equipment yet, so I might not go this route. If I lived in a hot climate I might, though.

John

[170C]

Even in TN & AL I have only had my iPod mini to overheat twice and both times because it was in direct sun during a refueling stop. Held it in prop wash taxiing and it came up w/o a problem. I now have to consider the iPad with ForeFlight an essential piece of equipment since dumping an old panel mount and handheld gps that couldn't be upgraded. Super item and no more expensive sectionals.

[gsflyr]

Pulled the trigger on the $500 rebate and getting ready to install the Stratus setup. Replacing the Narco AT15 in my '52 170B. As a licensed A&P, and thanks to an accommodating avionics shop here close to where I'm based, I'll be doing some of the installation myself.
Anyway, I'll let y'all know how it all turns out. Have to have it installed and certified by mid January.

Gary S

[rickyricky2]

N2704C is back from the electronics shop with the new ADS-B out Appareo transponder. They replaced the king box for the new transponder and installed a flat gps antenna on the roof. They used my cable and post antenna on the belly. Completed the annual p/m while the interior was out. This was all in the plan. Flew the test flight yesterday under Boston class B airspace. Test passed and I am now waiting for my $500 check from big brother. Yahoo

Dick Bryant
54 170B

[jrenwick]

.... Test passed and I am now waiting for my $500 check from big brother. Yahoo

Dick Bryant
54 170B

Did you have to do anything about the "Air on Ground" errors? Or has Appareo updated their software to fix this?

[rickyricky2]

I failed my first flight test. It seems 28 min. does not count. Second test flight was all green.

Dick Bryant
54 170B
N2704C

[jrenwick]

I failed my first flight test. It seems 28 min. does not count. Second test flight was all green.

Dick Bryant
54 170B
N2704C

Appareo ESG units have been failing with an "Air on Ground" error. Mine did. The problem is, if you taxi a little too fast, the ESG thinks you've taken off, and starts transmitting airborne messages. The solution for me was to pull the circuit breaker while taxiing, turn it on just before takeoff, then shut it off again after landing. It sounds like this didn't happen to you, so I'm thinking maybe Appareo has fixed the problem and I should ask about a software update.

[GAHorn]

How fast is "taxying too fast"?
I thought we were all supposed to taxi no faster than a walk...

[jrenwick]

A ground speed of 15 knots or greater for ten seconds triggers "Air Mode" in the Appareo ESG. They've thought about raising this threshold, but don't have any plans to do it at the present, according to Appareo Support. This failure is only a concern if you're trying to qualify for the FAA's $500 rebate; the FAA doesn't care about it otherwise. Appareo told me this:

There is one of two reasons [for the Air on Ground failure]. First way to fail it is if you are taxing faster than 15 knot for longer than 10 seconds. This will put the unit in Air mode even if you are on the ground so you needs to slow the taxi before takeoff and after landing. The second way and I think happened is once you started the plane and turn on the ESG let it get it's GPS position before you start to move about 2 minutes and start in STBY mode. After you get a Lat/Lon then press the ALT button just once and then you will see the display go to GND which means you are in ALT mode but on the ground. Now if the pilot presses the ALT button again it will ask you if you want to bypass Ground mode by hitting the FUNC button. If you press this then it puts you in the Air when your on the ground too! Don't do this or you wont pass. So as long as you taxi below 15 knots and the display shows GND in the window he is good. Once he takes off it will switch to ALT mode and then switches back to GND mode when he lands and gets below 15 knots after 10 seconds. I recommend stopping after clearing the runway for about 15 seconds then begin taxi to parking area and shut down at less than 15 knots. Also Try not to do any Touch-N-Go's or landings at other airports during this test because they could loose contact as well and you fail the test. The test does not start over once you land and takeoff again it continues as one flight. It only will begin another flight cycle if you shutdown and restart the ESG transponder. Remember even in STBY mode the ESG is transmitting ADS-B data. Good luck I hope this helps! The AOPA also had a good article on passing this rebate test flight. Here is the Link:

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all ... -clarified

[busav8or]

I don't know how I missed this thread before but I had the Stratus ESGi installed last December by a shop in SC (remember the crazy amperage story due to the discharged battery?) I absolutely love the unit! It has worked flawlessly so far. No issue with the "flight on ground" for me but that may just be due to slow taxiing!

Funny story on the qualification flight, though. I flew back from the installer mostly under Charlotte's class B airspace but with no maneuvering as spelled out in the AC. When back on the ground I thought, "why not submit the flight and see what else I need to do to qualify?" Well, within about 15 minutes I got a reply that I had passed and could finish applying for the $500, which I did and got my check soon thereafter. My buddies said the way I fly "normally" must have qualified as excessive maneuvering to the FAA! Could be!