Avionics News July 2018 - 48

AIRVENTURE DRAWING PULLS ADS-B TRIGGER
Continued from page 47

adequate for the new systems; rod and ball antennas often just
aren't suitable, and antennas for ADS-B Out and In are more
critical than just Out."
A seven-tech shop, Mac Avionics installs an ADS-B system
in two to four days, Ruhl noted, depending on integration
with existing equipment. The Lynx communicates with other
panel-mount avionics, but sometimes you have to pick one.
"We had a customer with Aspen and Avidyne, and the Lynx
would send traffic and weather to one or the other," he said.
"They just didn't have (three-way) compatible formats. We
got that resolved with the Avidyne software. With so many
different configurations of avionics equipment, this often
happens when integrating new equipment when it comes out."
It's not a problem in Spatz's Cessna 182 because the Lynx
stands alone, third in the stack after the audio panel and KLN
94 GPS. "Once you get the (single-unit Mode S extended
squitter) transponder set," he said, "do a couple of screen
swipes and you're looking at traffic and weather."
Spatz typically files IFR for cross-county flights, but with
ADS-B, "You're always in the system for local flights," he
said. "Operationally, having the traffic is the big winner,

especially when you're IFR. When I'm en route in cruise, I'll
zoom out to 12 miles so I can see stuff that's coming; I'll play
a little game with myself and wonder if ATC will call traffic
on this guy. And when they do, I'll know where to look or
will have already spotted it ... unless it's outside of 6 miles; I
can't see it, unless it's a big Airbus."
The aural traffic alerts provided by the optional ADS-B
Traffic Advisory System "have been great and the nuisance
alerts have been almost nonexistent." Piped into the audio
system, the alerts announce the range, bearing, and relative
altitude of the intruding traffic: "Traffic. Traffic. 3 o'clock
high. Two miles." And the screen displays a visual indication
of the alerted traffic. The system, said L3, provides alerts for
aircraft flying at any altitude, including airport pattern traffic
below 500 feet above ground level.
On the FIS page, the Lynx receives subscription-free
weather, including METAR, AIRMET, SIGMET and NexRad
overlaid on a moving map. A second page displays wind and
temperature aloft data, and to see lightening, interface it with
a Stormscope WX-500.
Another page displays up-to-the-minute broadcast information on airports, temporary flight restrictions, notices to airmen, graphically and in text. As it does on the weather page,
touching an airport or zone icon on the graphic screen calls up

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News July 2018