Audio Alerts

[Brett Friermood]

I like the updates to audio alerts that have happened in recent versions. I can't quite put my finger on exactly why, but the traffic alerts seem to be much easier to comprehend than before. The alerts from having AvareX running while driving near an airport make it easy to have situational awareness of the aircraft around you while still focusing on driving.

The recent addition of terrain and the associated terrain alerts also seem to work quite well. However, the one issue I have run into is the inability to turn off either of the alerts individually, or at least I haven't found it yet.

Mind you, the testing I am currently doing is all ground based so not fully representative, however I feel it would be beneficial to have the ability to turn off either the terrain or traffic alerts individually while keeping the other active. Two specific cases I can think of are flying at low altitudes, wanting to silence constant terrain warnings but receive alerts for nearby aircraft, or flying in loose formation with friends and wanting to silence constant traffic alerts but be able to receive terrain warnings.

From reading the manual and my experience in testing, it appears the terrain alerts are automatic if the elevation data is downloaded and the applicable parameters are met. Other than selecting the mute button to turn off all audio alerts I haven't found a way to turn off the terrain alerts.

I didn't find it in the manual and haven't tried it in my testing, but does having the traffic layer active or not influence the audible traffic alerts being issued? Regardless, having the ability to turn off the audio alerts but still have the traffic layer visible seems like a good thing in my mind.

Overall, I echo what others are saying about the new UI. I'm still getting used to things but I like it so far.