Portable Weather

Nexrad, METARs, and more to the cockpit — now

At every trade show and fly-in, you can tell which booth belongs to Control Vision, as the flood of customers fans out into the aisle. The combination of portability and an aggressive drive to incorporate new functionality into its products with its Anywhere program suite has placed the company at the top of a heap of software providers for personal digital assistants (PDAs). Now, Control Vision argues strongly that it can deliver what it promises by putting into cockpits one of the first datalink weather solutions — one of the few that are truly portable. And the company has more in store.

Control Vision bases its line of software on its first aviation offering, AnywhereMap (see " Pilot Products: Control Vision AnywhereMap," July 2001 Pilot). This moving-map software shows the aircraft's GPS-derived location and route on a highly detailed base map, with a horizontal situation indicator (HSI) on an electronic-flight-information-system (EFIS)-style display. The software was developed for PocketPC-based PDAs, and the Compaq iPaq is the company's PDA of choice, though the program works on other PDAs as well.

AnywhereWx, a companion program to AnywhereMap that retrieves and displays current weather information, has been working in GA cockpits since fall 2001 — and Control Vision has more than 400 customers using the system now. In the quest to bring graphical weather products to pilots in real time, the company chose to initially deliver what may be considered the most immediately useful tools for in-flight decision making: METARs and Nexrad weather graphic overlays. To bring this data to its users, the company partners with AirCell, which provides cellular-type datalink and phone service to aircraft, and Globalstar, which offers the same service via satellite.

The software downloads METAR information and codes it into blocks that display directly on the AnywhereMap main screen. For each station, the program creates a block divided into two triangles. The upper triangle represents ceiling, and the lower one visibility. White indicates VFR weather (more than five miles visibility and ceilings greater than 3,000 feet); yellow indicates marginal conditions (three to five miles visibility and ceilings between 1,000 and 3,000 feet); and red indicates IFR conditions (visibility below three miles and ceilings less than 1,000 feet) at the station. Plus, you can read the text of the METAR within the airport listing.

Nexrad radar returns are broken into seven levels for overlay on the AnywhereMap display. The lowest, level 1, is a blue pixilated pattern(the company calls it dithered) that you probably haven't seen on most Nexrad images. The company says that this return is often virga, or very light rain that may not reach the surface. While this level return doesn't often involve a hazard to pilots, it gives a good indication of the total coverage of an area of precipitation. During our test flying, we saw virga on the screen that came and went between a couple of downloads and corresponded to the weather associated with an advancing system in our area.

The other levels go from a green dithered pattern, to solid green, to solid yellow, to solid bright red, to solid dark red, to solid purple. Clearly, red is bad; even airliners fail to return from areas shaded purple. The levels are presented to the pilot in four-kilometer squares, showing the highest level of return reported in the square. This means that if a cell has a small amount of level 4 activity, but is mostly level 2, the square is painted as a level 4 return.

The data is time-stamped so that pilots always know how old the weather is that's currently on display. When first accessed, the weather data typically runs anywhere from two to six minutes old, and this time is noted on the upper left corner of the AnywhereMap screen. After downloading several Nexrad installments, pilots can set up the program to loop the images. Another feature automatically downloads weather at a given interval.

As noted earlier, pilots have two choices when it comes to accessing the datalink weather, and we flew with both methods of delivery. The AirCell system uses a Guardian 1000 airborne cellular telephone as the conduit. Unlike conventional cell phones, AirCell phones are legal to use in flight and are optimized for airborne use. The panel-mount Guardian 1000 retails for $3,500, and monthly service, including voice, data, and weather, is $39.95, which includes five minutes. Each additional minute is $1.95. According to an AirCell spokesman, a pilot can upload Nexrad images for the continental United States in less than one minute, at 9,600 bps. AnywhereWx works well through AirCell, as long as cellular coverage is available. AirCell says its coverage includes most parts of the United States above 5,000 feet msl. Our experience with the Guardian 1000 so far has been limited to the East Coast and Upper Midwest. The coverage is adequate over most of those areas except for the heavily trafficked corridor from northeast of Philadelphia through Boston. There, thanks to a lot of radio frequency noise from the metropolitan areas, the coverage is almost nonexistent.

Combining the Guardian 1000 with a panel-mount GPS certainly can make for the most convenient way to use the AnywhereMap and -Wx. A single connector can be installed in the panel to bring position information from the GPS, power for the PDA, and a connection to the AirCell. Plug in the PDA with a single cable and you're good to go — moving map, in-flight e-mail, and datalinked weather.

Control Vision also offers satellite datalink service for AnywhereWx through Globalstar, and for the pilot who rents or wants the ability to download weather in more than one airplane, this is the Control Vision option to choose. We flew with the system in a Piper Archer and Beechcraft A36 Bonanza, using the complete AnywhereWx package currently offered for $2,695: a Compaq iPaq 3950, a Globalstar Tri-Mode satellite phone, SatPack II phone/ GPS integration module (which includes a Garmin GPS 35, ports for the phone and PDA, and a nine-volt battery for backup power), software, yoke mount, and six months of program and database updates. Monthly service runs $24.95 plus 99 cents a minute, with 100 free minutes at sign-up.

The SatPack II cuts down on some of the wire spaghetti inherent to earlier setups of the Control Vision system — with the GPS antenna integrated, that's one less cord — and increases the options for power supply. Before, if ship's power went away, the iPaq went away too, after a life-sucking drain on its internal battery. The company estimates that the system can run for at least an hour on the battery pack.

During our first flight, near an advancing front, we tried several downloads with limited success. We were able to loop a couple of Nexrad images, opening a window to the front's progress, but we were losing the telephone's satellite signal too abruptly to access more than three downloads over the course of an hour and 20 minutes. Calls to Control Vision for troubleshooting led us to suspect our Bendix/King KTX 76A transponder. A handful of customers related problems keeping a lock on the satellite signal during initial flights with the Globalstar system, and the problem was traced to poor shielding on the transponder. No amount of antenna relocation solves that problem — but the KTX 76C is a slide-in replacement for the 76A and causes no such interference, according to Tom Reed, Control Vision's vice president of operations. The company has worked an exchange program with Gulf Coast Avionics that offers the 76C for a discounted rate for customers with this problem.

Downloads including all METARs and Nexrad data took anywhere from 45 seconds to two minutes using Globalstar; subsequent Nexrad downloads took less than a minute.

One other note to potential customers: If you purchase a software package from Control Vision that includes a PDA, the software arrives preloaded on the computer. But if you use your own PDA and install the software, refer to the Web site for the most up-to-date download information. While Control Vision has recently issued a new owner's manual, the print version only comes out once a year and does not necessarily reflect recent changes in the software.

More developments

A recent entry into the burgeoning market of personal digital assistants has led Control Vision to create a less expensive version of its moving-map software. The Dell Axim has a slightly smaller display than the Compaq iPaq; however, the package, at $795 — including the Axim — knocks $400 off the cost of Control Vision's iPaq package. An additional rebate is available through Dell. Customers receive free software upgrades for six months.

Control Vision has also introduced Anywhere AI, a solid-state attitude indicator that displays on PDAs in concert with the AnywhereMap software. The attitude indicator uses a proprietary attitude reference module (incorporating a digital attitude heading reference system [AHRS], a resident GPS receiver, and a battery pack) to provide self-erecting attitude information. Control Vision developed the module with a built-in auxiliary power supply completely separate from the aircraft's power supply and vacuum system so that it may serve as a backup reference system in case of an aircraft system failure. The program is designed to run either on its own, or in the background, while the pilot actively uses AnywhereMap. The system features a set of "programmable attitude reference thresholds" — the pilot inputs a threshold of pitch and bank, and when the aircraft moves outside this envelope, the attitude indicator screen pops onto the PDA. The full package (including AnywhereMap and -Wx) retails for $3,695; current Control Vision customers can upgrade for $1,095.

Customers also can use the datalink system to send and receive e-mail via the company's proprietary Airmail accounts. Pilots may set up the system to download Airmail at any time that weather data is accessed, or make discreet requests.

Version 1.4 of AnywhereMap and -Wx debuts this month, with several tweaks to the program. In addition, Control Vision will offer more weather options for its customers. The company partners with Meteorologix for its weather services, and updates with version 1.4 include a special satellite imagery download, with color-coding to depict cloud tops. TAFs will follow later this year.

Pireps are also on the horizon — with a twist. Control Vision is currently working with the National Weather Service to develop a way for its customers to input pilot reports into their PDAs and upload them to Control Vision's server — at which point the pireps would feed into the NWS system for dissemination to pilots. The software also includes data from AOPA's Airport Directory.

Control Vision continues to listen to its customers. Case in point: Several versions back, the company upgraded its user interface to include a large-size keyboard, to make tapping out identifiers in light chop just that much easier. Next thing you know, the company will create a stylus that instantly replicates in your hand when you lose it under the left seat.

Price: $2,695 for AnywhereMap and -Wx complete package; $1,295 for AnywhereMap only package; $3,695 for Anywhere AI, -Map, and -Wx package; $595 for packages with AnywhereMap software and Garmin 35 GPS.

Contact: 800/292-1160; www.controlvision.com

E-mail the author at [email protected].

Versatility vs. Reliability

The pros and cons of handheld GPSs and PDA-based moving maps

BY THOMAS B. HAINES

If there's one truism regarding electronics, it's that the more you ask of any one device, the less likely it is to perform any of its functions reliably.

When's the last time your calculator locked up? It does one thing — calculates numbers — very well and very reliably. Your personal computer also calculates numbers — and a whole lot more, but the versatility takes its toll in the form of reliability and complexity.

A number of companies produce highly capable moving maps for personal digital assistants (PDAs). Link them to a GPS and voilà, a full-featured handheld GPS for potentially less than a standalone handheld GPS. Regardless, the PDA version generally offers a great deal more versatility and capability. You can sync it with your PC for portable access to e-mail, calendar, and contacts. Wireless options allow instant messaging and a host of other features. PDAs and their accessories now constitute an entire industry. Activate a PDA's moving-map software and link it to a GPS receiver for position information in the cockpit. Add a satellite phone or an approved cellular phone and you can receive near real-time weather and even e-mail.

But take note. Your PDA will lock up. Like your PC, you will eventually witness a crash that will force you to at best reset the minicomputer and at worst reload all of its software. The instability is the price to be paid for the versatility of a PDA.

Handheld GPSs, on the other hand, seldom if ever lock up. In fact, except perhaps among the very early handhelds, I don't recall ever seeing one stop working. Like the calculator, handheld GPSs do one thing very well — they navigate. Their operating systems are dedicated to one thing and they do it without fail. Of course, you get none of the nonaviation features you can have with a PDA and as of yet no handhelds provide datalink capabilities. A couple of kneeboard-size units do offer datalink.

You also generally find handheld GPSs require fewer wires strung throughout the cockpit. Most run many hours on their own batteries. In some cases, the unit's built-in antenna suffices. In other cases, a portable antenna and its wire may need to be strung across the cockpit. And a connection to ship's power also may be desired.

A PDA setup almost always requires at least those two wires. Most run for only a very short time on their own batteries and most do not include built-in GPS receivers. Add a satellite phone, and the number of wires and complexity of the installation can increase considerably.

When it comes to software enhancements, it's hard to beat the PDAs. The aggressive companies marketing the moving maps seem to come out with a new version almost monthly — often with desirable enhancements, including terrain information, highly detailed obstruction data, and even airport diagrams.

Handheld GPS software, meanwhile, seldom is updated, except for the navigation data. The features you get when you buy it are what you'll live with for the foreseeable future.

Bottom line: Know what you're getting into before you buy. If you use a PDA and understand its capabilities and liabilities, you'll find the features of a PDA-based moving map useful and possibly astounding. On the other hand, if you want simplicity and basic navigation, you might consider a handheld GPS.

E-mail the author at [email protected].