Airbox AWARE: cost to run

[Rob Swain]

I am investigating the purchase of an AWARE airspace alerting device to use in addition to my existing GPS. I think the AWARE initiative is a very sound idea and NATS and Airbox should be commended.

However...

I am dismayed by the cost of chart updates for it. Before anybody launches in that they are free, the database updates are free, but the charts for the display are not, at least not after the initial device purchase.

The cost is £60 for the three UK 1:500000 charts, or £24.99 for one of the three, if one buys them as a download. These prices seem excessive when the paper ones are only £16 and include the costs of printing, physical distribution and various retail chain profit. Pretty well none of this is required for the electronic version.
Also the £60 offer seems less than useful when one considers that the charts change on different dates, so if you want to keep the device properly up to date it's not really an option.

I accept that the charts should be charged for as there is a lot of work in them, but these prices seem excessive, especially when many of us will (should?) also be buying a paper one.
Maybe a system such that one gets a free electronic chart when one buys a paper one, or being able to buy a paper & electronic chart package would be a better system.

I ALWAYS buy and use up to date charts, and the prospect of having to buy them twice (in addition to paying for updates for my current GPS) is both irritating and expensive.

I know the princpal point of the AWARE is all about the underlying free airspace database, but I can't help thinking that not keeping the maps up to date will seriously affect its usefulness: at these prices it's pretty obvious a lot of people will just not bother and fly around with increasingly out of date charts that they WILL be navigating with, regardless of what they may otherwise say.

I'll get off my soapbox now. What do other people think?

[Trevor Harvey]

As far as I am aware the updated airspace is all that is required. The basic map/chart topography, positions of towns etc, doesn't change much, perhaps with the exception of the latest crop of wind turbines.
I've had my basic unit for about 3yrs & only update the airspace for free.
Windfarms are fairly visible when you come across them

[Rob Swain]

Surely it gets confusing when the chart displayed on the screen doesn't tally with the airspace being reported in the messages it's giving you.

I know the recent demise of Lynham and Cottesmore confused me when it was still in my GPS but not on my more up-to-date chart. It could be even worse when new airspace arrives that the Aware box tells you about but doesn't actually show because its chart is out of date.
I accept it can happen while a chart is current, but after 3 years it must be a real problem.

Navigation around airspace purely by message - interesting!

[Trevor Harvey]

The Aware system does not advise by "message" alone, it depicts the airspace as it would on a paper chart, up to date. If an airspace boundary is marked & then moved, changed from E to D or removed. The updated airspace will show that, overlaid onto the original "map". Frinstance, & I am up north, if Lynam has become disused but was a Mil zone then the update will show a small blue circle with a cross like it does at Crail, which is, from the air, a perfectly maintained triangular Mil airfield.
I don't know if you have used/seen one of these things? But in case not. The "airspace" is overlaid onto a map. The Aware system separates that "airspace overlay" from the map which can then be updated separately from the map bit. Or am I preaching to the converted??

[mikehallam]

Just to add to Trevor's post.

I bought the electronic AWARE 2011 French 1/2 mill. Chart too. The French unfortunately have changed a lot of airspace sizes, heights etc., particularly in the Paris, Tours and further south regions, but I'd no idea of that. So not until actually in the air & flying down to Poitiers last month was my monthly updated AWARE unexpectedly & confusingly wrong when compared to my new Nav. paper 2012 chart. Many purple lines on the 2011 based AWARE display were quite different so in the event I tried to avoid both those as well as the 'true' 2012 chart lines.

I wrote to AWARE about this failure when I got back and after some exchanges they stated their updates do exclude changes to charted areas but even so assured me their red & green warnings will coincide with the current configurations.

Thus If I'd gone close to, or even into today's forbiddden territory, AWARE should have worked.

I presume it's my bad luck that from last year to this the French made such big alterations to their controlled airspace that my chart is already obsolete - a really expensive burden if I should have to update the electronic chart annually as well as the £18.00 paper one.

mike hallam

[Trevor Harvey]

Mike. I really do not understand this "chart versus airspace" thing.
The aware system separates the airspace as an overlay from the topographical map of the area. The basic map doesn't change unless someone builds Dollynewtown somwhere or puts up a windfarm.The airspace which does change is updated monthly, & overlaid onto whichever outdated chart/map you have. Whether Aware have actually updated French airspace or not is a different issue.
Buying the updated paper chart will of course show new airspace, but it shouldn't be necessary to update the electronic chart/map at whatever cost when it is not changed apart from the free airspace update.

[mikehallam]

Trevor,

When I grizzled to AWARE after returning from France having relied on their product's integrity, at my surprise & discomfort that my 2011 purchased AWARE French chart (regularly updated 'free' on line) did NOT show the correct 2102 airspace profiles, they eventually claimed they only update alarm profiles, NOT chart airspace.

Thus any airspace as shown on their own screen charts is effectively frozen. I was unhappy to get that answer because I too had thought the only changes I'd miss out on by retaining 2011 were coastline erosion or new towns etc.

I have to say too that the AWARE update web site, until I alerted them during the exchange of e-mails was still offering the 2011 chart. So I don't know what I'd have actually got from them if I had purchased the 'latest' issue at great expense !

Certainly judging from their web site, French Chart 2011 was current when I left for France on 23rd June this year, rather misleading to a pilot/client dontcha think ?

In fact it was misleadingly miles out, so despite their advertising free updates and my correspondence with them on this very item AND re-updating twice since then including the Olympic latest for July, the airspace data has remained obsolete. Seems to me they've actually sold me something different to what they claim.

I think you may gather because the prime purpose of owning an AWARE has seriously failed me, I remain disatisfied.

mike

[Trevor Harvey]

Mike.
This is news to me, I was under the impression the chart & airspace had been somehow electronicly separated to the point where the actual map part could be eliminated & one could fly by ref to airspace/aviation features. over a blank screen with only airspace marked on it.
I even once asked if the Airspace system could be superimposed onto an OS Landranger 1-50000. But for some reason that couldn't be done, scale I think.
What do they mean by "Alarm profiles"? & Chart airspace.?
I must admit the flying that I do would be possible for the most part without the device, mostly over Scotland class G. They did however update the airspace through the "Cumbernauld Gap" between Edin & Glasgow which used to be E & now D with alt lifted etc. All of which seemed fine & seemed to confirm my beliefs. To the point where I tend to have somewhat outdated paper charts
Your revelations have now worried me a little.
On a lighter note I am not surprised your unit is out of date for the 2102 profiles!! Give it time.
Trevor

[mikehallam]

Trevor,

It almost sounds from what you say you could be right and AWARE do update airspace monthly, or is that arbitrary ?

I'd be obliged if you'd raise the subject with them yourself. Could it be the UK is reliably updated and France only done with the left hand on a dark Friday night, after hours ?

I don't wish to knock them but at this stage your personal request for clarification might cause them to consider giving what they promise you get, as opposed to what (doesn't) happen.

What can we trust, should I ditch my AWARE ? "I think we should be told" & if necessary their advertising cleaned up.

More worried of Sussex (restored to 2012)
aka mike.

[John Brady]

I too was dissappointed to discover that the Aware airspace depiction does not change unless you buy a new chart. In supporting Aware when it came out I wrote in our magazine that the airspace will always be up to date and only underlying changes to geography (ie coastal erosion in Norfolk) would be in error. I recommended we all buy one.

I now know that is not the case and whilst its alerts are still good it is unsafe to use Aware for navigation purposes as the depicted airspace is significantly out of date. I think my support for this would have been muted if I had known the cost of keeping it current and the high probability that most users will not buy the updates.

John

[mikehallam]

You too John !

I just looked at AWARE's website it clearly claims to give users (note the words 'Latest Airspace Update'):
QUOTE
"Latest Airspace Update NORTHERN HEMISPHERE ONLY Valid from July 14th 2012..................... ........Download (update file)"
UNQUOTE.

mike

[mikehallam]

Apropos the above I've once more e-mailed my concerns to the AWARE folk.

They promise that pilots can rely on their primary CAS avoidance airspace display to be accurate when freely 'updated'. Now we learn this isn't quite true.

If other owners contact Airbox on the problem of Chart airspace updates, we might then be able to obtain a satisfactory solution.

NATS, as instigators of the system might wish to help sort it: have any LAA members a contact to ask ?


mike

[Trevor Harvey]

There is a Safety Day at RAF Leuchars on Mon 6 Aug. This will be mentioned

[NATS General Aviation Lead]

I will admit to being a little confused by this thread.

The concept behind NATS involvement in the AWARE Airspace Warning Device is very clear. The purchase of the device includes the current 1/2 mil UK charts and allows the user to update the overlaying airspace boundaries together with associated warnings on a monthly basis and free of charge.

Ultimately, a purchaser could choose not to update the background chart year on year but providing they updated the device with the monthly airspace definition they would generate a boundary depiction of the current airspace along with associated warning functions.

To the best of my knowledge this is how the AWARE device range operates within UK airspace and I will be confirming this with Airbox at the earliest opportunity. In the meantime, if anyone suggests that this is not how their device is operating I would be most interested in the detail.

[Ian Melville]

Hi Jonathan,
I don't have an Aware unit but my understanding is that the raster map shows airspace boundaries as well as the overlaying airspace boundaries. When these boundaries change the overlay is updated monthly, but not the raster map which requires an annual outlay.

Some people seem to get confused about the conflicting info, though I am not bothered. Hands up how many draw the changes anyway

The only way round this is to get the raster map generated without airspace boundaries. This is possible as the raw map data is digital, though would mean a special digital only raster map for the Aware. This could be at a lower charge. Do we draw the line at boundaries, what about other air data. Perhaps Skydemon would be a better choice for the confused?