On Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 9:01:06 PM UTC-7, Charles Longley wrote:
Lot of people calling each other stupid on here....

I’ve installed a lot of different ADS-B out systems. If it was my personal power airplane I would put in an ESGi transponder. I was recently involved in a Trig ADS-B out transponder installation. It’s a very elegant solution for a glider.

If I was going to put an UAT system in it would probably be a GDL 82. The skyBeacon is quick, easy and cheap but I would worry about the impact of the lawsuit between Garmin and uAvionix.

A skyBeacon would be better then nothing in a tow plane. I’ve had more close calls with power planes while towing and flying gliders then with other gliders. Installed the skyBeacon is around $2,000 compared to the ESGi’s $5,000.

My experienced 2 cents

I have no idea where you fly gliders and how many of those are PowerFLARM equipped.

Please lets not paint the picture that it's a $2k vs $5k price difference for UAT vs 1090ES in a towplane. An Appareo Stratus ESG at ~$3k is a better comparison, including because you are comparing the price of a UAT Out only skyBeacon to a 1090ES Out/Dual-link In packaged ESGi.

Another good choice is Garmin GTX-335 ~$3k (with integral GPS option) or so plus install. Maybe better with support and service availability. Like the Stratus ESG, it is Mode S/1090ES Out with integral GPS. I am not sure how many tow pilots want ADS-B traffic-in or how many tow plane owners want to pay for that. One of Appareo's great service to GA has been pushing Garmin down on GTX-335 pricing. That extra $1k - $1.5k should not be a huge difference to go with the non-stupid for PowerFLARM compatibility option.

And it seem some towplanes in areas where ADS-B Out may be needed by them after January 1 2020, have aging mode C transponders (like crusty old KT76), so there is likely a benefit in those owners upgrading to a new transponder as part of any upgrade. To quantify that, a towplane owner could say upgrade to a more modern used GTX-330 Mode C transponder for ~$500-$1k or so. So in those cases a GTX-335 or ESG transponder for 1090ES Out and skyBeacon UAT Out effective cost likely gets close. And a Mode S+1090ES transponder in a towplane as part of an ADS-B Out upgrade is even nicer to have near high-density PowerFLARM operations to help avoid spurious Mode C PCAS alerts that Mode C equipped towplanes can cause.

Interesting comment on the lawsuit. I'm not a fan of the skyBeacon or Garmin headless setups, would prefer direct hardwired control of squawk and other settings and access to other controls on the panel. I wonder how skyBeacons are going to work in rental aircraft if somebody messes with the settings vis their iPhone and the next pilot renting it can't even see what stuff is set to. You naturally get better usability with integrated transponder solutions... but thats more a connivence not the main reason to go there.