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LARS data


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rlcb
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A couple of points of feedback on LARS and SkyDemon:

1. I appreciate the mess and the need to keep the interface sane. I wonder though how others plan for LARS with SkyDemon today? Any time I plan to fly somewhere I'm not already familiar, I find myself looking at ENR 6-11 for the LARS coverage chart, and ENR 1.6 4.1.6 to see if particular LARS will be open. I find this a pain - particularly because when I look at ENR 6-11 I can't see my planned route overlaid.

An alternative might be to run in Simulate mode to get the Radio tab and experiment for different parts of my planned flight, but this method seems quite obtuse too. And if I use the plog frequences to see what LARS might be available during planning, I can't immediately see where and for how long I might have coverage because I can't see the range from there.

2. The LARS frequences that appear on the plog don't appear to be sensitive to LARS opening hours as published on ENR 1.6 4.1.6. For example if I plan to fly near Warton on the weekend, then Warton LARS gets listed on the plog even though they're closed on weekends. Does SkyDemon know about LARS opening hours at all? Though I'm not sure it'd be useful to me to adjust just the plog, as I'm struggling to use SkyDemon to plan for LARS at all, as above. But perhaps a better method (if someone can tell me how), or a future software enhancement, might make SkyDemon knowledge of LARS opening hours handy to have.

Mikernav
Mikernav
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You learn something new every day - I didn’t realise the double tap on the frequency produced an in chart graphic. That is an elegant solution - like everything SD does! Thanks to all at SD for a great contribution to flight safety.
Tim Dawson
Tim Dawson
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We already have all the LARS units in our data. We don't show them on the map normally, because - like in your link - it's a mess. However you can temporarily show their coverage by opening the Radio tab in flight and tapping on any frequency.
Mikernav
Mikernav
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Hi Tim.

I came across a very good interactive website showing LARS coverage. Is this something that you might be able to incorporate into your excellent SD product?

https://labs.f17.co.uk/apps/lars/
Gax
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That's fair. I guess for consistency elsewhere you could always just show the nearest LARS to that point, perhaps within a maximum range limit to avoid suggesting ridiculous stations in areas of the country that really doesn't have coverage - that would still be useful (but still not as useful and easy as the UK actually dividing up the airspace properly like any other country! )
Tim Dawson
Tim Dawson
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I remain open to the possibility but I'd like to take it slowly regarding adding stuff to the new What's Here menu. It's still quite new, and we'll see how the feedback keeps coming.
Gax
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Hi Tim

Appreciate what you're saying, however I would argue the case that the London area *is* inherently different to airspace in the rest of the country, and it is managed differently as well.

In other parts of the country, LARS are simply the Approach frequencies of nearby airports. Outside of the London area, the general approach to picking who to talk to is to look at the nearest significant airport or just talk to London Info. To do this is quite easy, as you just look at the map and press on the airport.

The London area is, however, a completely different kettle of fish given the nature of the airspace and the very clear demarcation, as you say. I think you'll find people barely even use the Radio or PLog screens to get frequencies anymore (unless they like to print them out beforehand) now that the What's Here function has been greatly enhanced. People should be encouraged to tune into Farnborough, but without appearing on the What's Here tab people are likely to not even see the frequency listed as an option, nor can they see which of the 3 frequencies is correct to use for their position.

When flying to London, I would *expect* things to be a bit more complicated, and therefore I don't see why it would be confusing to be provided with the additional LARS frequencies in that area as strongly recommended contacts.
Tim Dawson
Tim Dawson
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You're right, they are well-defined polygons. We would face a different problem then though, of including certain LARS but not others. People would (quite reasonably) find this behaviour unpredictable and frustrating. At the moment I'm not comfortable including them in What's Here for that reason. All LARS frequencies will appear in your PLOG though, which is also only a button press away.
Gax
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Would it be possible to at least find a way to get the Farnborough LARS in? I notice they're in the 'Radio' screen, but not in the 'What's Here' screen - Because they're not proper airport approach frequencies, I haven't found any way to plan ahead and look it up until I'm actually in the area. I think Farnborough LARS actually uses defined zones...
Tim Dawson
Tim Dawson
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Those coverage maps are typically made up. That is, they're either a mess (because they're accurate) or they nicely divide the coverage into sectors, in which case they're beautiful but made up. We're not currently comfortable doing that in SkyDemon.

I have‌‌ it on good authority that moves are afoot within the CAA to do something about this, but have no idea what they're doing or if there's a timescale associated with it.
GO

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