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Permalink Reply by Jim Monsu on March 20, 2019 at 8:49pm

Just to close the loop on this, today I spoke with Kurt from uAvionix Tech Support and he informed me that the SkyBeacon should not be mounted on an angle like the wingtip recess of the 601. They recommend mounting it as close to horizontal as possible. He recommended instead using the echoUAT with SkyFyX EXT and explained that it’s a simple installation with the added benefit of ADS-B in for less money. I took his advice and ordered the bundle from AircraftSpruce this evening. 

Jim

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Permalink Reply by John Austin on March 22, 2019 at 8:40am

... and just some further clarification about mounting.  I was beta-testing a pre-production skyBeacon and originally tried mounting it on my STOL 750's wingtip where the strobe normally mounts.  This does place the skyBeacon at an angle and not perfectly horizontal.  However, as far as GPS reception and ADSB-out broadcasting, it seemed to work fine in this position.  There was an issue, however, with erratic reception of my transponder for squawk and baro altitude information.  I don't think this was due to the angle of tilt, but rather that the relatively "thick" metal wing was blocking line-of-sight transponder reception.  I ultimately re-mounted the skyBeacon on a "pod and boom" mount I fabricated - a little funky looking, but hey, funky looks is what the STOL 750 is all about and besides, the price was right!  ;>)

This worked perfectly! HOWEVER, uAvionix later changed the method of transponder reception and baro altitude data generation.  As I understand it, it now has an internal altitude encoder and syncs the transponder squawk through the existing nav light wiring (they call it a "power transcoder") rather than the wireless over-the-air reception that my pre-production unit uses.  Therefore, one should be able to mount the skyBeacon on the wingtip as originally designed/intended and since the units now have an internal strobe, replace the existing strobe.  I really don't think the few degrees angle of tilt will present a problem - if it did, one would simply need to mount it horizontally in the same location.  That would probably require some new mounting holes (I was primarily utilizing my existing strobe mount holes and thus the tilt), but that would not be a difficult modification.

I think the new skyBeacons are a good "bang for the buck" as you're getting a strobe and nav light along with the ADSB-out.  They also now have a matching nav light and strobe ("skyLight") for the opposite wing or the same unit plus wireless ADSB-in ("skySensor").

John

(uAvionix beta tester, but no financial/business affiliation with uAvionix)

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Permalink Reply by John Austin on October 26, 2021 at 8:46am

Long-Term (4 years!) Update - I had just come back from the long (400 nm) cross-country to the Zenith Homecoming fly-in and decided to pull a PAPR report to check on my pre-production skyBeacon.  To my surprise,  instead of a report, I got a notice that the FAA "had no record of my flight!"  I went out and flew a short test flight and again, "no record of the flight."  The pre-production skyBeacon has a red LED in it's fin that blinks if there is an internal failure, and sure enough, it was blinking.  I used the uAvionix installation app to determine it was no longer getting a GPS fix and consequently, not squawking-out the ADSB data stream

I could hardly complain about the failure since I was given the unit free to beta test!  I contacted uAvionix and was told that since my skyBeacon was a pre-production unit, it was not repairable.  My pre-production skyBeacon was succeeded by the production model (skyBeacon TSO) which was quite different - the new model has an internal baro altitude encoder and no longer depended on the transponder squawk for that information, it also detects the transponder code squawk through the nav light wiring instead of wirelessly through an antenna, has a LED strobe, and I was told the sealing of the unit was improved.

Since my skyBeacon was not repairable, uAvionix support offered me a new skyBeacon TSO for 50% off!  Since it has an identical footprint to my old skyBeacon, this made for an easy re-installation on my pod and boom mount I already had.  The best part was that when I installed the new unit, I got a perfect PAPR report the very first try - and this was despite flying in an ADSB fringe reception area.

So, happy to report that the present-production skyBeacon TSO seems to be a much-improved product and that uAvionix support is fantastic!

John

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Permalink Reply by Juan vega on March 22, 2019 at 4:02pm

Yes and yes

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