iFly GPS Forum

i will attempt to make a recording.  i have not updated my chip in several months, well before the forest fires started or the downtown portland TFR was created.  i thought in the past i was receiving pop up TFRs while on X/C flights, but questioned my memory when none showed last week.  i saw the statewide TFRs on DUATs, so assume that the FAA has released the info to ADSB.  a friend said he had a similar problem with his ifly740b, so that is why i questioned when the TFR info is downloaded.  replies of "just be safe and pull it off the internet before each flight" didn't answer my question.  there is a difference between loading data before a flight from the internet and having the most recent available while flying via ADSB.  several replies didn't address this.

i am delighted to hear that yes, in-flight updates do exist, and my memory was correct.  my ADSB-IN is the small chip i bought from your company.  i forget the name, Ping maybe?  postage stamp size with 2 little wire antennae coming out.  that has always worked fine.  i hope to fly saturday and will try to save adsb files as well as check the settings, tho i've never changed the factory defaults.  after problems with an aftermarket power cord that didn't fit tightly and caused poor reception, i now get strong WAAS level coverage quickly into a flight, so that aspect isn't a consideration.

WAAS is not a consideration in this discussion at all.  WAAS has to do with whether your GPS position is accurate to within a few feet vs. within a few tens of feet.  Has nothing to do with ADSB data reception.

If you really want to ensure you have the best shot of remaining clear of TFRs, the way to do that is to talk to a briefer before you take off, and talk to ATC while you're in the air.  Anything short of that is not foolproof.  (Actually, even that approach is not 100% foolproof, as ATC is not at fault if you bust a TFR because ATC didn't warn you you were approaching one.  In practice though, ATC's going to try their best to help you avoid them, and they're going to have the most up-to-date info on them.  It would be very unlikely for them to let you fly into one without saying something.)

so i flew today for an hour. no TFRs appeared on my screen.  i have not downloaded from the internet since august.  what i notice under ADSB status window is no GPS updates with a big red X.  However, under METARS, weather, NOTAMS, it does show activity.  when i first started the flight those showed just "..." and then later these numerals, which i assume means that it completed the download.  other screen shots show nothing downtown Portland where there has been a TFR above the federal courthouse for several months.  i zoomed way out to 100nm and nothing shows.  there are at least 8 TFRs in this area because of extensive forest fires.  they are large triangles, not small circles.  i showed them in another post.

i logged the ADSB data for this flight, but don't recognize which file it is on the chip.  what is the significance of the "X" GPS updates (0)  ?