I'm an Airline Pilot with an IT background and half decent .NET C# programming abilities. I wish to develop something that will help us pilots in the air to understand what's around us. You may be surprised to hear that Joe Public has way more information about traffic in the air compared to most pilots flying multi million dollar jets. Even if that traffic is a thousand feet above and 5 miles ahead of us, people 10,000 miles away will have ten times more information about that traffic compared to the pilots! We still rely on old fashion TCAS symbols that display basic relative altitude and information only. See below:
Aircraft manufactures rolling out ADS-B in/out capable aircraft today are still treating the 'in' part of the system (i.e. the ability for aircraft to listen to other ADS-B signals) as an option they can charge for. Because there's no economic advantage to pilots having this information, Airline Management do not and are unlikely to invest in this 'pilot nice to have' item and so we are kind of stuck in a position where the advantages of this beautiful invention simply go un-experienced. This is testament to the stupidity and bureaucracy that exists within commercial aviation where good inventions that have reached general aviation can sometimes take 15 years to arrive on to our flight decks. Not only could this extra information aid our situational awareness but has the potential to increase safety too (an example would be to avoid wake turbulence from preceding aircraft over Oceanic airspace). This is what it looks like when the option has been purchased, better but still quite basic:
So far I've come across a lot of information, terms, concepts, tools, SDKs, APIs but all of this has left me a bit confused. I wish to get off to the best possible start by seeking your help. My application will initially be developed as a Universal Windows Application that can run on a Windows PC/laptop, Tablet or Phone.
An outline of what I wish to achieve:
1.) Be able to use a relative cheap RTL-SDR receiver
2.)My app will read the ADS-B data in the most easy way possible
3.)The app will also capture my own aircraft's ADS-B data from the read out, thereby getting my location (and doing away with the need to have a GPS, hopefully!)
4)Over lay that data onto a relatively simple map that draws the other aircraft relative to my position.
Thank you!
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