Spot tracker or Gamin Inreach

[digits_]

As a bit of a tangent on one of the recent accident topics, I was wondering which device would be most helpful in a tracking / SAR situation in Canada, and possibly other areas in the world.

The 2 contenders are Spot trackers and Garmin Inreach. Maybe there are others.

From a strictly aviation point of view, which one would be best to buy?

[CpnCrunch]

I used to use SPOT, but now have an Inreach. I find the inreach very unreliable. The tracking usually works, although it's limited to 1 ping per 10 mins which isn't terribly useful. The text messages are very flaky, and quite often they don't arrive until 4 hours later.

Now I mostly use a cellphone tracking app set to 1 minute intervals (Greenalp). The few occasions I'm not within cellphone range for the entire flight I'll use the inreach.

If you really want something reliable you probably need to go with something like V2.

[CruiserNU]

If you intend to venture beyond the arctic circle then Inreach is the way to go. Mine has been very reliable, and it costs me nothing during the off-season. I had Spot years ago and found it next to useless at higher latitudes.

[JasonE]

I had a spot tracker about 5 years ago. It worked all everywhere I flew (below 10,000 ft). I sold my plane and stopped doing longer XC flights so I killed the service. I see now it's getting pricey and the update interval isn't as good. With the ADSB mandates coming I'd spend my money on upgrades there.

[co-joe]

What about Zoleo, or Iridum Go? Anyone have experience with these?

Hey Cap, what's a V2? Like the Nazi rocket?

[I WAS Pez]

There are a few relatively low cost satellite trackers that work fairly well for leaving a breadcrumb trail, including the InReach, SPOT, and others. Worth noting is that all of these listed except the SPOT use the Iridium satellite constellation for data. SPOT uses Globalstar.

In a location with good satellite visibility, most of these should work fine, but you'll need to test the location in the individual airplane. Of course, the more expensive commercial, certified, permanently installed options (of which there are a few) work more reliably, but do cost significantly more. I've also always found Iridium to be somewhat more reliable than Globalstar...

As far as I know, these all basically have an emergency button, which will send notification to the provider, who will normally contact JRCC. Tracking point frequency can be adjusted for pretty much all of these, higher frequency comes at a higher cost / different monthly service plan.

As mentioned earlier, ADS-B opens some doors.... Specifically, ADS-B 1090ES OUT w/diversity (diversity just means a top antenna in addition to bottom antenna, which allows for reliable satellite tracking) - which will be required in Canada for everyone sooner or later. Upshot is, global satellite tracking with 2 *second* resolution. The Iridium satellites have Aireon ADS-B receivers on them - so full global coverage, and without using satellite data as such (but no 2 way communication or easy access to your own data in normal circumstances).

It's possible to pay an arm and a leg for access to Aireon's satellite data for your aircraft, but commercial operators can register to track missing aircraft for free. More importantly, SAR already has access to it.... Meaning, if you're overdue and the JRCC folks go looking, they should be able to see your last reported ADS-B location globally, and with extremely high accuracy (not the 10 minute update and the related flight radius in 10 minutes).

One other thing that's often overlooked is 406 ELTs... on their own, these are much better than 121.5 ELTs, and allow the COSPASS-SARSAT satellites to get a fairly good fix relatively quickly if the ELT activates and has an intact antenna with a view of the sky. BUT, there's a key feature they basically all support that I've never seen connected/configured on light GA aircraft; They can be interfaced with the aircraft GPS, which then allows relaying a precise position the second the ELT is activated manually or automatically.... Sooo, hit the ELT switch if something bad is happening, and your actual position should be known to SAR almost immediately.

My inclination would be to start thinking seriously about ADS-B 1090ES OUT w/diversity (this is a new transponder, not an addon). There is now a low cost option which was just approved, and other higher cost options, some of which include ADS-B IN, and even TAS or TCAS-I traffic.

[PanEuropean]

I've used SPOT in the past with good results, but if you are travelling in the high arctic, do some research first to find out what the coverage of the SPOT tracker is.

The only place I ever lost coverage was flying between Nome Alaska and Anadyr Russia. They have no coverage over the Bering sea in that area. But otherwise, they covered me just about everywhere I went in the world.

I'm pretty sure SPOT publishes coverage maps.

[I WAS Pez]

I've used SPOT in the past with good results, but if you are travelling in the high arctic, do some research first to find out what the coverage of the SPOT tracker is.

The only place I ever lost coverage was flying between Nome Alaska and Anadyr Russia. They have no coverage over the Bering sea in that area. But otherwise, they covered me just about everywhere I went in the world.

I'm pretty sure SPOT publishes coverage maps.

They do, and that's a good point. I'd forgotten how limited Globalstar's coverage really is: https://www.globalstar.com/en-ca/coverage-maps. Iridium is truly global. So is ELT coverage, as well as ADS-B 1090ES w/diversity.

Globalstar's transmit frequency is also a little closer to one of the GPS bands than Iridium, which has more potential for interference with some sensitive GPS systems than Iridium (normal aircraft navigation equipment should be fine). That shouldn't really be an issue other than with specialized applications though (and even Iridium can cause interference there, unless specific technical measures are taken).

[AirFrame]

Compare the ADSB and SPOT tracks (5 minute resolution) for my flight this past weekend... ADSB is simply blowing everyone out of the water in terms of track quality. All it needs is a panel-mounted "Oh-Sh*t" button that you could hit in an emergency, or a G-switch like the one in your ELT, and we'd have a system that would obsolete every ELT on the planet instantly.

(My SPOT track includes the return flight, the ADSB track is just the outbound leg... FlightAware only shows one flight at a time, SPOT shows all flights in a time range)

[digits_]

Note: ADSB tracks also appear on flightaware without filing a flight plan. Makes sense, but I was surprised when I found out.

It does seem to depend on line of sight though, low level data does not get displayed. I'm wondering if the 2 second resolution will still be achievable if everything goes through satellite.

[I WAS Pez]

So... this is the problem with ADS-B stuff. It's awesome, but there's not a high level of understanding of what the data is and where it comes from out there.

Ignoring the different link types and extra services in the US for a moment, focusing just on 1090ES, there are a few points:

-aircraft position is automatically transmitted on a regular basis, without need for ground interrogation
-1090ES ADS-B is really just the most recent iteration of a mode S transponder, tied to a high integrity GPS source
-can be single, bottom mount antenna, or diversity, with top antenna as well
-suitably equipped ground stations and other aircraft with the same standard IN equipment and display can receive the position transmissions

-in the US (and in some countries around the world), ground stations are used to pick up ADS-B transmissions to feed ATC systems, along with radar
-in Canada, that's not the case, with the exception of a few specific areas like Hudson Bay
-for ATC use, NAV Canada has signed on to use Aireon's space based ADS-B (and was actually one of the founding partners) - this requires the top diversity antenna (or diversity supporting alternative like TailBeaconX, which is the best bang for the buck for 1090ES OUT w/diversity)

-FlightAware, FR24, ADS-B Exchange, etc all use private ADS-B ground based receiver networks to feed their sites... they don't have access to ATC data directly
-this means an antenna on someone's house or a building, connected to a program or box that connects to the internet and relays the data to FlightAware, etc
-in an area without ground stations, coverage isn't very good

-now, for 1090ES diversity equipped aircraft, they're actually being tracked by Aireon all the time, all around the world......that data is available to SAR agencies, and in Canada is used by SAR if an aircraft goes missing and is suitably equipped - so the breadcrumb trail is already there

-the space based ADS-B data that Aireon has is NOT provided for free outside of the SAR case though..... ANSPs like NAV Canada can sign up to purchase data for their territories, as can companies and individuals...
-for private use, the Aireon space based ADS-B data is available through a few channels - primarily FlightAware, who is their main commercial partner
-the way they've set this up costs, last I checked, over $250 USD/month per aircraft for access to the space based ADS-B (it's not included in the normal paid FlightAware accounts - they sell you data for each specific airplane, per month)...

-It's really frustrating, as they have the data - but they definitely make their money on it...

[JasonE]

Maybe we can beg Elon for a few satellites.

[AirFrame]

It does seem to depend on line of sight though, low level data does not get displayed. I'm wondering if the 2 second resolution will still be achievable if everything goes through satellite.

Define "low level"? My track above has me on takeoff within 100m and has my low approach on departure down to 38m.

[AirFrame]

-FlightAware, FR24, ADS-B Exchange, etc all use private ADS-B ground based receiver networks to feed their sites... they don't have access to ATC data directly

-for private use, the Aireon space based ADS-B data is available through a few channels - primarily FlightAware, who is their main commercial partner
-the way they've set this up costs, last I checked, over $250 USD/month per aircraft for access to the space based ADS-B (it's not included in the normal paid FlightAware accounts - they sell you data for each specific airplane, per month)...

First, your contradiction... Flightaware, as NavCanada's "main commercial partner" most definitely does have access to Aireon data.

Flightaware has tracked me across regions that have no ground radar, and that have very, very low probability of having an equivalent network of ground-based receivers. And even if they did have ground-based receivers "occasionally" on those routes, it's unlikely that they would track me from valley to valley as these signals would have to be line-of-sight to the ground station.

So i'm fairly confident that the tracks you can pull up on Flightaware are based on Aireon data, although I have no way to prove that.

[digits_]

It does seem to depend on line of sight though, low level data does not get displayed. I'm wondering if the 2 second resolution will still be achievable if everything goes through satellite.

Define "low level"? My track above has me on takeoff within 100m and has my low approach on departure down to 38m.

2000 ft ASL seems to be the cutoff for my flights on flightaware, with a ground elevation of 800 ft.
But if I look at flights from a location with a tower, the altitude is the same. So maybe it's just a hard limit imposed by flightaware.

[I WAS Pez]

-FlightAware, FR24, ADS-B Exchange, etc all use private ADS-B ground based receiver networks to feed their sites... they don't have access to ATC data directly

-for private use, the Aireon space based ADS-B data is available through a few channels - primarily FlightAware, who is their main commercial partner
-the way they've set this up costs, last I checked, over $250 USD/month per aircraft for access to the space based ADS-B (it's not included in the normal paid FlightAware accounts - they sell you data for each specific airplane, per month)...

First, your contradiction... Flightaware, as NavCanada's "main commercial partner" most definitely does have access to Aireon data.

Flightaware has tracked me across regions that have no ground radar, and that have very, very low probability of having an equivalent network of ground-based receivers. And even if they did have ground-based receivers "occasionally" on those routes, it's unlikely that they would track me from valley to valley as these signals would have to be line-of-sight to the ground station.

So i'm fairly confident that the tracks you can pull up on Flightaware are based on Aireon data, although I have no way to prove that.

On this - yes, FA does get some data from ANSPs - it varies by country, but they'll get basic info about filed flight plans, and in some cases radar data. I don't believe, but I could be mistaken, that they get ADS-B data.

By and large, the ADS-B data you see on FA comes from a massive network of private ground stations. Many are just an antenna on some guy's house, connected to a PC running the right software and uploading the the FA servers. ADS-B works way better at long range, with very minimal ground infrastructure, than just about anything else. Meaning, a bunch of passive private receivers can provide very good coverage.

FA is NOT NAV Canada's primary commercial partner, and I don't believe I stated that it was (if so, it was an error on my part). FA is Aireon's primary commercial partner. They HAVE satellite ADS-B data for the entire world.....they just charge for it - it's not shown in the free or standard paid FA offerings.

https://flightaware.engineering/flighta ... b-network/


Getting back to the original question on the best thing for SAR... I think ADS-B 1090ES w/diversity is worth a close look. And it'll be required in a few years anyway.

[AirFrame]

By and large, the ADS-B data you see on FA comes from a massive network of private ground stations. Many are just an antenna on some guy's house, connected to a PC running the right software and uploading the the FA servers. ADS-B works way better at long range, with very minimal ground infrastructure, than just about anything else. Meaning, a bunch of passive private receivers can provide very good coverage.

I'd love to see a coverage map for the FA ground receivers that you can zoom in on to see their locations. I know i've been in uninhabited valleys that certainly wouldn't have a receiver in line of sight, but my track came in just fine on FA. The only way that could happen is if the data from the satellite was being passed on.

FA is NOT NAV Canada's primary commercial partner, and I don't believe I stated that it was (if so, it was an error on my part). FA is Aireon's primary commercial partner. They HAVE satellite ADS-B data for the entire world.....they just charge for it - it's not shown in the free or standard paid FA offerings.

My bad, I use Aireon interchangeably with NavCanada because they're essentially the same company.

Getting back to the original question on the best thing for SAR... I think ADS-B 1090ES w/diversity is worth a close look. And it'll be required in a few years anyway.

If NavCanada gets their way, yes. TC is not on board yet, and COPA is fighting hard to keep it that way until there's an incentive for pilots to switch.

[I WAS Pez]

I wish the satellite data was publicly available. From what Aireon and FA folks have told me, it most certainly is not. The reality is that the crowdsourced ground network is very good - and due to its nature, a single ground receiver can do really well at picking up even fairly remote transmissions... maybe not always 100% reliably, especially with no good line of sight, but it's pretty impressive what they can pick up. You can see the same in an airplane with an ADS-B 1090ES (or dual link) IN receiver.... they can frequently pick things up from much further away than they really have any business doing.

All of which is a really good reason that TC SHOULD be requiring mandatory ADS-B equippage across the board, soon. Relatively low cost now, and a huge safety benefit... think really low cost, really accurate better than TCAS traffic information (if you have "IN" of an appropriate link type) - provided everyone else around is emitting.

[AirFrame]

double

[AirFrame]

You can see the same in an airplane with an ADS-B 1090ES (or dual link) IN receiver.... they can frequently pick things up from much further away than they really have any business doing.

Yep. My Stratux has been amazing. I regularly have weather traffic (broadcast from US ground stations, not just air-air) as much as 50 miles north of the US border, if i'm at altitude.

All of which is a really good reason that TC SHOULD be requiring mandatory ADS-B equippage across the board, soon. Relatively low cost now...

Well, not quite, but it's getting there. The cheapest option is still north of $4K installed, compared to the US 978 option at around $2500 if I recall? Both are ridiculously expensive, but at least the US offered the incentive of free weather and traffic (including non-ADSB traffic in areas with radar coverage) from an authorized source... Here in Canada the mandate will be to install the more expensive ADSB-out devices, and we'll get *nothing* back from doing that. We can run a Stratux or equivalent to see traffic on our tablets, but there's much less of a guarantee that you'll see everyone. If there were incentives like "add a G-switch and you can ditch that 1960's technology ELT" it would be more palatable.

[I WAS Pez]

Well, not quite, but it's getting there. The cheapest option is still north of $4K installed, compared to the US 978 option at around $2500 if I recall? Both are ridiculously expensive, but at least the US offered the incentive of free weather and traffic (including non-ADSB traffic in areas with radar coverage) from an authorized source... Here in Canada the mandate will be to install the more expensive ADSB-out devices, and we'll get *nothing* back from doing that. We can run a Stratux or equivalent to see traffic on our tablets, but there's much less of a guarantee that you'll see everyone. If there were incentives like "add a G-switch and you can ditch that 1960's technology ELT" it would be more palatable.

Well, yeah. Inexpensive and airplanes don't usually go together... it's all relative though....

I should step back for a minute and clarify something about 1090ES vs the low cost UAT stuff in the US.... UAT is an ADS-B link type supported in the US below 18,000' only. It is not supported anywhere else in the world. UAT IN has some pretty good stuff, like support for weather and other data relayed from ground stations - but those ground stations are exclusively in the US. Anyway, UAT OUT is normally a piggyback installation to an existing legacy mode C transponder or older mode S transponder. UAT OUT ADS-B is NOT a transponder itself - a standard transponder is STILL required. It's also not satellite tracked.

1090ES ADS-B OUT (and the diversity flavour, which just adds a top antenna), are just the latest version of mode S transponder, supporting Extended Squitter (which is basically ADS-B), tied to a suitable GPS source and sometimes additional aircraft systems. That means that any 1090ES OUT ADS-B unit IS a transponder - you don't need transponder PLUS your UAT ADS-B box - it's a modern replacement for a legacy transponder.



The TailBeaconX is probably the lowest cost unit out there at $2,500 USD for new hardware without a control panel. In the future, it will likely be able to be integrated for control through other panel components.... For now, a panel mounted controller is required (which, if your plane is on the AML, allows you to add an AV-30C digital ADI as a standby or primary instrument), this bumps cost to around $4,500 USD for just hardware. New Garmin GTX 335D transponders are around $6,000 USD for hardware... Of note, the TailBeaconX has its own built in WAAS GPS receiver, and does not need to be interfaced with anything other than a control head of some sort. The GTX 335D requires interfacing with an approved panel mounted WAAS GPS like a GNS WAAS unit or GTN.


If you're lucky enough to have a GTX330D (D is for Diversity) already, you can send it in to Garmin to be upgraded to 1090ES OUT for $1,600 USD - then it needs some avionics work to tie to a suitable WAAS GPS like a GNS 430w or 530w, or any of the GTNs and there you go - 1090ES OUT w/diversity.

If you have a straight GTX330, you can find a used GTX330D in the $1,200 USD range (going rate on eBay right now) and have it upgraded to ES by Garmin for $1,600 USD... then you just need a top antenna and tie in to WAAS GPS and you're good... Can also do this as a fresh install, but then need some more panel and avionics work. Can turn around and sell your GTX330 for probably around $700 USD on eBay.

For something with some more capability, a brand new L3 NGT-9000D or NGT-9000D+ gives you diversity, ADS-B dual link "IN" for display of other traffic (and wx etc in/near the US) and the + variant even includes TAS active traffic (poor man's TCAS-I - active interrogation and display of mode C and S traffic, which is fantastic to have in a light airplane in dense uncontrolled airspace.) These start around $8,000 USD, add another few thousand for the TAS active traffic. As a bonus, these have built in WAAS GPS receivers, and don't need to be tied to a panel mount unit. They can even share an antenna with an existing unit with the right splitter.

Other neat thing is that many of these transponders are available in remote mount - GTX330D is the GTX33D, GTX335D is the GTX335DR, NGT-9000 (D, D+) is the NGT-9000R (D, D+). All of these can be remotely controlled by modern Garmin GTN or GTN Xi navigators (onscreen control, no panel space taken up by transponder... can free up space for other things). The Garmin units can also be controlled by the various G1000 variants and a few others, and the NGT-9000 can be remotely controlled by Avidyne IFD units. Some of the higher end new Garmin transponders can also be controlled by GI 275.

The TailBeaconX will be interesting to watch, as it's exclusively remote mount - the approved controllers are just really limited right now - my bet is that support and approval will be added for control by the Garmin GTNs soon.... That'd be a winning combination.


Costs aside, I'd argue that there really is a very significant safety benefit to universal equippage though, especially with 1090ES OUT w/ diversity.

1. Safety - ATC and SAR - SAR now has full global coverage of high resolution tracking data, down to a few seconds - that exists NOW with 1090 ES w/ diversity, and the JRCCs can request satellite based ADS-B tracks (now, anyway... of course, it looks like they fumbled this early on: https://canadianaviator.com/ads-b-found ... in-quebec/)
-there is a case to be made for replacing ELTs with satellite based ADS-B, but requires universal equippage and gov't working groups... I suspect this'll happen, but may take a few years. Worth noting that FlightAware's commercial satellite based service offers (for a significant fee), "GlobalBeacon" - that's the satellite based tracking, coupled with notifications for emergency squawk code selection, and configurable alerts for things like vertical rate, speed, altitude, etc
-on the ATC side, last I heard Nav Canada still hasn't integrated the satellite based ADS-B datafeeds into lower level sectors, but it'll happen eventually, providing radar like services...everywhere...

2. Safety - TCAS is awesome, but until recently, has cost a fortune and has only been available in large aircraft. Lower cost active traffic systems have now been available for a few years, offering either TCAS-I or TAS (pretty similar active traffic interrogation/display) - these would be the Garmin GTS 800 family, an Avidyne offering, and some others like L3's Skywatch. We're now seeing these systems available at relatively low cost, combined with and ADS-B 1090ES OUT w/diversity transponder, along with dual link IN and TAS active, in the form of the NGT-9000D+.

-What does this have to do with ADS-B? Well, it's a bit of a tangent - but with universal ADS-B equippage, the safety benefit is that you get access to even lower cost, extremely accurate traffic data in the cockpit. Until there's universal ADS-B equippage, ADS-B IN equipment if of limited use, as it only shows the ADS-B equipped traffic out there - NOT the mode C and legacy mode S. When everyone has ADS-B, there's a really significant safety benefit. Until that time, the only way to see a fairly complete electronic traffic picture is with some flavour of TAS or TCAS. Of course, all of this only work with aircraft that have serviceable transponders which are turned on....