Joel,
I don't fly in the LA basin much, but I do fly in the Chicago area a lot. I have flown the LIV with both the Ryan and the L3 TCAD. Both seem to be good units, to make a good comparison we flew interceptions with another transponder equipped aircraft from various directions and altitudes. The results were that the L3 seems to give more accurate azimuths but in every other regard they seemed the same. The azimuth error on the Ryan 9900BX on certain bearings was over 30 degrees whereas the L3 seemed to be less than 10 degrees. Most of the ghosting that we saw seems to be a factor of the intruder aircraft's structure blocking a good signal. This seems to disappear as the intruder gets within 2 nm. But intruder transponder antenna on the bottom of the aircraft seems to produce blocking when the intruder is significantly lower with both units.
My biggest complaint is (flying the L3 since 2002) frequently intruders don't have their transponder on. When I can get them frequently on unicom and ask they say it is not necessary out side of the 30 mile Vail. I had the experience of overtaking a 172 @ 10000' one day at TYS I was desending at 250kts indicated. Approach asked me to slow down so I leveled off leaving the power up to avoid shock cooling and I noticed a very finely etched little cross on my windshield. It rapidly grew and I pulled up and missed him but it is amazing how insignificant a 172 looks from directly behind. No transponder and TYS was on secondary radar so no radar alert. It seems that a certain number of pilots don't know how easily they can be run into from even behind. Look at the sailplane and HS 125 accident at Reno, NV.
Jack Webb
L360, LIV
----- Original Message ----
From: Joel <joel@meself.com>
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 3:47:17 PM
Subject: [LML] Traffic Systems
I fly both TAS6XX/9900BX and SkyWatch. It is no contest for me. The
Avidyne is a much better unit. The SkyWatch is prone to ghosting which
can be disconcerting flying in the LA basin. The dual-antenna system
eliminates that problem. Skywatch is trying to pitch a weakness of their
unit as a strength. Just my 2 cents.
Joel
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