Looks to me as if you’ve worked out how to use it pretty quickly, and pretty well actually! 😉

Andy

They call it a “virtual radar” but it isn’t a radar. Aircraft equipped with Mode-S transponders can send position/altitude/speed/flight number reports to ground stations at very regular intervals. These position reports are detected by the SBS-1, interpretted by the software, and plotted on a “radar-style” display on a PC. As already said, not all aircraft are mode-s equipped and not all transmit position reports. Over the coming years, more aircraft will be mode-s equipped, and that will mean more will be trackable on SBS – at present, if an aircraft is not mode-s equipped it will not show up at all.

As well as position/altitude/speed/flight number, mode-s equipped aircraft transmit a unique six-digit hex-code which identifies the aircraft. These hex-codes are NOT the registrations of the aircraft. The software that supports the SBS-1 has a facility to tie-up hex-codes to aircraft registrations, but in turn the user of the SBS box needs a source of these cross-references. Several sources exist, but the coverage can be patchy especially for smaller aircraft outside of Europe (or that do not operate into Europe), and for new aircraft only the hex-code will display until someone somewhere manages to tie the hex-code to a registration – you need to keep this cross reference up to date, therefore. Bear in mind that if the hex-code to registration tie up is incorrect, the registration will show up incorrectly on the PC screen.

IMHO SBS is a very useful gadget if you’re a registration collector, and an interesting (and expensive) curiosity if you’re just a watcher of aeroplanes. Remember that if you’re going to use it away from home, you’re going to need a laptop computer to take with it.

Andy

OK, well to pitch the other side of the “USA” argument, I did my PPL in the USA and there’s no way I’d do it any other way if I had my time and money all over again. I came back, did two hours with an instructor here (one hour checkout, one brief x-country / land away at another nearby airfield) and I’ve been flying here ever since. Learning in the US saved a lot of money, and gave the continuity of learning you’ll never get here because of the weather – when learning, how many times do things get cancelled, or you have to go back over old ground, just because its so long since the weather allowed you to fly? In three weeks in the USA, never did I have a lesson cancelled due to bad weather. Here in the UK, it can sometimes be three steps forward each lesson, two steps back in between.

I was lucky in that I was able to go to the USA the year before I did the PPL, and checked out a number of flying schools in both Florida and California. That gave me confidence that I’d made a good choice. Not everyone can do that, so ask around for recommendations – my experience is probably too long ago now to offer a meaningful recommendation. Having picked somewhere reliable and recommended by others that offes a UK/JAA PPL (not an FAA PPL), I see no real reason for the “Also I found it took many hours of instruction back in this country to get used to the differences.” stated earlier, other than I know a few flying clubs and schools here have been accused of looking down on US trained PPLs and try to milk them for as much of the money as they can that they didn’t get through providing training in the first place.

Having said all that positive stuff about learning in the USA (or indeed anywhere abroad), learning to fly in the USA is definitely NOT a holiday. A three week course will involve flying four hours some days, classroom and books in between, exam prep (do the reading/learning before you go), etc. It is three weeks of hard work. Don’t take “significant others” – they’ll be too much of a distraction!!! My three weeks in Florida was one of the best three weeks I’ve had away from home – hard work but good fun.

Going to the USA means visas these days – that involves paperwork, and a trip to the US embassy in London for a brief interview. Whilst not time consuming in itself, the elapsed time for the process to be gone through is not brief, so if you are intent on going abroad in April, start the paperwork and visa application process NOW.

Andy

Possibly so, but sometimes it is simply not appropriate to release sources 😉

Andy

And I still take pictures!

Yeah, yeah, yeah! :rolleyes: All rhetoric. Your camera hasn’t been out in months – in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if its jammed up as a result of lack of use! 😮 Do you even know where it is? Come on, admit it, the only thing you take now is registrations! :diablo:

Andy

Well that would explain the visit to EMA a few months ago of an E-jet demonstrator…..so although we could have presumed mainline or regional, it wouldn’t be a suprise for them to turn up at WW. Having said that, the tender has only just been issued, and, as a private company, they wouldn’t need to tender if it was a done thing. Perhaps, the preference IS the E-Jet, but they’re just checking that they can’t get a better deal from A or B.

Of course you need to issue a tender – even if you know the type that fits best for your needs, you don’t just stroll into an Embraer showroom and say “I’d like 20 of your e-jets, what’s the sticker price?” :rolleyes:

Anyway, alwys possible that “the price won’t be right” but e-Jets for WW is what’s being chased right now

Andy

Do we assume that the harbingers of doom for the A380F were at the very least premature, given that the original press story on which this discussion was based said that UPS were going to cancel their order this week just gone?

Andy