Portable ADS-B Just Got Longer Legs

It was the same wiggle-in-the-seat feeling I had somewhere around 1996 when Paul Bertorelli and I were flying in and around the busy New York B-space in an old Mooney, tag-team evaluating what would become a huge seller: Monroy’s stick-it-on the glareshield ATD-300 portable traffic minder. Almost 30 years later I found myself in the same airspace perched in a Cessna Cutlass fingering the screen of a production-ready prototype of the SkyHound portable ADS-B traffic and weather minder. You can link to the SkyHound video report if you want to see it in action.

Like the old Monroy ATD (and the Zaon XRX device that came later), and unlike any portable wireless ADS-B receiver on the current market, the SkyHound has a built-in traffic and weather display. Don’t fly with an iPad? Neither did Hound Avionics founder Sholom Ellenberg, so when he hit up Sporty’s to buy a receiver that had a built-in display and found that it doesn’t exist, he gathered a few fellow techies and they made one. Some commenters said the SkyHound solves a problem that doesn’t exist because face it, those who don’t have panel ADS-B weather and traffic play the data on a tablet, streamed from a wide variety of portable receivers—too many to list in one sitting. Not so fast.

Ellenberg thinks there are enough pilots like him who just as soon leave the iPad at home instead of sticking it on a sun-splashed window where it might overheat or run out of battery. He isn’t exactly crazy about Bluetooth reliability, either. And so he’s running the SkyHound at the market, debuting the product at AirVenture next month—deeply discounted the price of the first batch down from the product’s planned selling price of $1,249. I can’t think of a better place to test the waters because if it doesn’t sell at Oshkosh, it’s probably doomed.

But if I was a betting man, I’d wager there will be plenty of buyers who will see some utility in an all-in-one traffic and weather box. I hope it’s a success because, well, it’s good to see a fresh, unique product backed by someone with Ellenberg’s enthusiasm. If I had a nit to pick it might be the unit’s footprint. It’s not huge, but I wouldn’t want it coming at me in a crash or coming off the glareshield in big turbulence. I suppose the same can be said for unsecured tablets and any other portables—including the action cam I suction cup in front of my noggin on these flight reports.

But all that aside, the SkyHound could offer a peak at the future of portable ADS-B In systems. My reaction was the same as others when Ellenberg proudly proclaimed that he’s trying to get the FAA to approve the device. Is this guy nuts? Everyone knows that if the certification goes sideways (and even if it doesn’t), it’s a sure way to lose a lot of dough. Ellenberg said an aviation attorney suggested that he try to get the thing certified, plus he feels that an FAA stamp of approval (through NORSEE—Non-Required Safety Enhancing Equipment) puts the device at a higher level when it comes to buyer confidence. Maybe. The FAA told him it would be nearly impossible to get approval if the thing had an internal battery, so the SkyHound uses external power input only. When I flew with the system in early June, NORSEE approval was in the works and going well.

And the scenario got me thinking about the day of a force-fed ADS-B In mandate. That dilemma is already solved because certainly we’ve proven for years that dual-band (978 and 1090 MHz) portables streamed to tablets can get the job done when it comes to painting the traffic, and it should be logical for the FAA to allow them so we don’t have to spend more money on ADS-B equipage if there isn’t one already installed that receives traffic. But I’d also bet that the FAA would recognize that an overheated or battery-depleted iPad used as the one-and-only traffic display would be a deal breaker. But a NORSEE-approved-like self-contained unit that can stream the data to the tablet over Wi-Fi, while also displaying the traffic on its own screen and secured in a reliable mount and placed outside of the flail zone … not a bad compromise. That could bring to market a new generation of portable ADS-B receivers with built-in displays. The Appareo Stratus 4 already has a utilitarian display that might be expanded for traffic and FIS data. Garmin could make one in a day.

Last, I have to wonder if fewer pilots are flying with their iPads. I’ve talked with plenty of pro pilots who say the same things about keeping them stowed for 90% of a trip because the panel has everything they need. I don’t bring mine along anymore after spending big for Apple’s latest and biggest iPhone. It’s a compromise in screen size, but works fine for me running Garmin’s Pilot app for the rare occasion I need it over the big-screen Garmin PFD in the little plane I fly.

Remember the Lynx NGT-9000 panel ADS-B transponder? While it has ADS-B Out and In, it too has a dedicated traffic and weather display and it sold in sizable numbers. I asked John Zimmerman at Sporty’s if he thinks the market would embrace a self-contained portable ADS-B unit and we finished each other’s sentence. There’s probably enough applications to generate demand, and maybe more if a version was offered with a Flarm traffic receiver for the soaring crowd. There’s also the overseas market, where portable ADS-B hardware is pretty much dominated by uAvionix.

Good for a smart guy who unexpectedly took an idea from project to product and reincarnated the all-in-one portable traffic minder—a gadget that otherwise might have been dead forever. We’ll see if buyers open the wallets for his product, but regardless, I think the avionics market needs more Sholom Ellenbergs.