News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on TCAS averts possible head-on collision in Austin. Parent comment

Re:TCAS averts possible head-on collision in Austin by buildsjets on Saturday October 19, 2024 @04:17PM (#41890452)
No, we don't. ADS-B transponders do not negotiate with each other in real time to compute a mutual avoidance maneuver and provide audio guidance to the pilots of what to do to avoid a collision.

ADS-B is better than nothing, but all it does is report where another airplane claimed to have been about 20-30 seconds in the past.

Flying formation with people while watching their ADS-B return is very illuminating.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:TCAS averts possible head-on collision in Austin by cynical_spar on Saturday October 19, 2024 @08:54PM (#41892034)
You are down playing it way too much. It’s way better than nothing. You also don’t seem to understand how ADS-B works. There are two kinds ground to air and air to air, air to air latency is measured in milliseconds and in the case of converging airplanes the latency would be near zero since you are receiving the other airplanes broadcasts directly.

Having TCAS in small GA airplanes is never going to be possible. The cost is too high and the performance differences are too great. You don’t need an RA to make a decision, TAs are completely sufficient in GA and ADS-B works quite well for that.

Not sure why you would care about this while flying formation. TCAS isn’t helping you there either.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343689163_A_study_o...

[ Parent | on HN ]