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HomeHomeDiscussionsDiscussionsiFly General Di...iFly General Di...iFly 740b Alerts Are DangerousiFly 740b Alerts Are Dangerous
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7/12/2020 9:36 AM
 

I intentionally made the topic subject sound scary, because I think this is a safety of flight issue.  The iFly audio alerts are terrible to the point of being dangerous.  I am using an iFly 740b.  Problem Example 1:

Yesterday I was flying around the local airspace, and I saw two ADS-B targets flying in formation about eight miles away, heading in my general direction.  No problem, I go about my business.  A few minutes later I get a single "ping" alert, and look down at the display.  I was startled to see the pair of aircraft are now 1nm away, within 500ft altitude.  I look to their position and spot them doing a hard turn into me (they were doing formation aerobatics), *very* close.  They level out and pass overhead, within 1000ft of my aircraft.  All I ever got was that single ping at 1nm.  No other audio alerts.  The traffic alert box was up on the screen.

Out of curiosity, The rest of the flight I intentionally flew close to other ADS-B targets to see when I got alerts.  I twice got alerts for aircraft that were 4-6 miles away and behind me, no factor.  I *never* got any further audio alerts for aircraft that got within two miles, even after rebooting the 740b.  I have seen similar behavior on several flights previously.

My alert thresholds are set to 7nm and within 5000ft of my aircraft.  A single ping at 1nm within 500ft with these settings is NOT acceptable, and is dangerous.  The whole point of ADS-B traffic is to warn the pilot so they can keep their eyes outside the cockpit and fly the airplane.  Having to watch the display like a hawk because I can't trust the audio alerts is not what I had in mind.

Problem Example 2:

Obstacle alerts are extremely inconsistent.  Sometimes I get alerts to obstacles that are 6nm away, sometimes I get none until I'm right on top of them.  I have had alerts when flying straight and level where the very first audio alert was for a tower 0.4nm away.  No icon, no alert text box, no audio tone until then.  Then it all happens at once and I get the "schwing!"  emergency alert at 0.4nm.  Are you kidding me?

I was flying with a friend at low level to the local grass strips a couple weeks ago, and on climbout after takeoff I see a tower just left of our course, taller than our altitude, less than a half mile away. I looked at the 740b and there it was on the map, circled in red and black.  No alert at all.  My friend has a 720 in his airplane.  I said "Hey, are you getting an alert for that tower?"  His response: "No, but I'm not surprised.  iFly alerts suck."  So I don't think this is just me.  I previously had a Garmin 496, and all the alerts were super consistent and accurate.  The iFly alerts are night-and-day from that experience.

If there is a setting to fix this, please let me know.  I have been living with these terrible alerts since I bought the unit, and frankly I just don't trust the 740b to keep me and my passengers safe unless I babysit it all the time.

 
New Post
7/12/2020 2:08 PM
 

More info...

Went back out today, flew out to a known tower that has poor alerting with the iFly.  No alerts at all until 1.6nm from the tower.  In the same area had traffic 1200ft above me that went literally right over my airplane, I watched it through my skylight.  It showed as red on the screen the entire time, never gave me an icon, alert text box, or audio alert.

Now for the weird part:  on the way back, pointed right at the troublesome tower, I got a "ping" alert at 1.8nm, with the text box popping up.  Another at 1.6nm.  At 1.3nm the text box flashed briefly "No Obstructions" then went to "Nearing Airport - Alerts Inhibited" (or whatever the exact language).  The text box then *disappeared*, showing NO ALERTS!  This was despite the fact I was still closing on the tower at 100kt and 200ft below the top of the tower!

I checked my settings, and I had alerts inhibted for "planned airports only".  AND, during this test period I made sure I had cleared out my flight plan.  THERE WERE NO PLANNED AIRPORTS, yet the iFly 740b was acting as if I was approaching a flight planned airport!  The only nearby airport was 8 miles behind me and I was flying away from it, not approaching it. 

Hypothesis:  iFly is erroneously marking my aircraft as "approaching a planned airport" when no such planned airport exists, and is therefore inhibiting all except emergency alerts for both obstacles and traffic.  Again, this is extremely dangerous behavior.
 

I'm happy to be proven wrong and be told how I have this misconfigured, but I don't think so.  I think this is a critical bug in the iFly alerts algorithms affecting safety of flight.

 
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7/13/2020 10:00 AM
 

I have submitted a support ticket with AP, hopefully they will address this issue quickly.

EDIT:  I have not even got an email from AP saying they received my support request, but they did manage to send me an email reminding me my subscription expires next month.  Bad timing, AP.

 
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7/15/2020 8:22 AM
 

I guess since nobody is answering, and iFly has not responded to my support request, I'll keep hammering this here and on YouTube.  

Here's an obstacle alert failure, the alerting tells me I'm approaching an obstacle from 2.2nm down to 1.6nm.  At 1.6nm the alert box switches to "NO OBSTRUCTIONS" and then to "Approaching Airport - Alerting OFF", in spite of the fact I have "planned airports" selected in in the "turn off alerting when approaching..." setting and I have no flight plan entered into the iFly 740b.  The failure occurs at about 0:42 in the video:

https://youtu.be/_U3_dMf-_pw

And here's a traffic alert fail.  I was flying with two of my friends in their airplanes, in loose formation for over an hour, never ONCE got an alert on their airplanes or even saw them as targets, in spite of us maneuvering quite a bit, and seeing other traffic on the display.  ADS-B status shows "receiving".  Both other airplanes saw me on their ADS-B units, and both have IN/OUT installed.

What iFly shows:

 

What I see out the window...note the airplane 0.1 - 0.2nm away, just above the nearby buildings in the image:


 

There is another airplane flying with us that is directly ahead a half mile or so.  No target displayed.  I do see another target about 5.5nm away, but what good does that do if I crash into a closer target?

 
New Post
7/15/2020 11:57 AM
 

While the AP folks are usually pretty quick to respond to stuff like this, it's not uncommon for it to take a few days (or more).  The forums are not an official support mechanism and are only supported by AP on a "best effort" type basis.

If you really want to shake someone up and get some immediate acknowledgement, you can call the Customer Support line during normal business hours and explicitly bring this to their attention.  Otherwise, patience is advised. 

 
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