Florida Peeps - SunTrax

Half Fast

Half Fast

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Half Fast
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For those of you flying in Central Florida, this is coming soon to a crowded airspace near you:

suntraxfl.com

SunTrax Air

Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Research and Development at SunTrax establishes Florida’s premier testing hub for air and ground transportation innovation, featuring dedicated airspace, intelligent transportation systems, and collaborative research facilities to advance eVTOL development, aerial...
suntraxfl.com suntraxfl.com


Are any of you familiar with this?
 
Half Fast said:
For those of you flying in Central Florida, this is coming soon to a crowded airspace near you:

suntraxfl.com

SunTrax Air

Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Research and Development at SunTrax establishes Florida’s premier testing hub for air and ground transportation innovation, featuring dedicated airspace, intelligent transportation systems, and collaborative research facilities to advance eVTOL development, aerial...
suntraxfl.com suntraxfl.com


Are any of you familiar with this?
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I'm aware. This is part of that piloted vertical takeoff/landing air taxi initiative. Gonna be lots of activity along the I-4 corridor between Orlando and Tampa. For anyone that's ever driven I-4, I can see the appeal, BUT execution is everything.
 
Well, unfortunately, it's not just along I-4. This is Phase 1A:

1771948173811.png

That encompasses a lot of small airports that aren't depicted (Lake Wales, Winter Haven, Bartow, etc.) and, as I'm sure you know, there's tons of traffic in the area, including ultralights, gliders, seaplanes, ag spraying, even a parachute operation at Lake Wales. I'm trying to find out what sort of ops plan they have.

tsts4 said:
BUT execution is everything.
Click to expand...

True, and I don't want to be the one who gets executed. :)
 
Half Fast said:
Well, unfortunately, it's not just along I-4. This is Phase 1A:

View attachment 150212

That encompasses a lot of small airports that aren't depicted (Lake Wales, Winter Haven, Bartow, etc.) and, as I'm sure you know, there's tons of traffic in the area, including ultralights, gliders, seaplanes, ag spraying, even a parachute operation at Lake Wales. I'm trying to find out what sort of ops plan they have.



True, and I don't want to be the one who gets executed. :)
Click to expand...
Roger, but the developmental phase via SunTrax is gonna be I-4 centric which poses the issues you raise due to the congested airspace. The business plan, available off the website you linked, lays most of it out.
 
I still have my doubts about the economic viability of AAM. I guess we will see.
 
It's not obvious from the website, but SunTrax is a part of the FL state government, the dept of transportation specifically. They started with vehicle safety and toll testing, now it appears moving into autonomous flight safety?

I don't think they're building anything, they are a testing and approval agency? I think?
 
bflynn said:
It's not obvious from the website, but SunTrax is a part of the FL state government, the dept of transportation specifically. They started with vehicle safety and toll testing, now it appears moving into autonomous flight safety?

I don't think they're building anything, they are a testing and approval agency? I think?
Click to expand...

Basically, yes. They’re building a test facility along the Polk Pkwy, in Auburndale. I’m unsure about the wisdom of testing in such a congested area, and so far I haven’t learned about any coordination with the local airports and the FAA.
 
bflynn said:
It's not obvious from the website, but SunTrax is a part of the FL state government, the dept of transportation specifically. They started with vehicle safety and toll testing, now it appears moving into autonomous flight safety?

I don't think they're building anything, they are a testing and approval agency? I think?
Click to expand...
SunTrax is FDOT's innovation arm. They are charged with doing the research and development of the concept to include of the proof of principle work. The business plan spells this out. Also AAM is Advanced Air Mobility--pilot operated vehicles not autonomous drones, at least not under this program. That said Amazon drones are now buzzing over the Tampa area delivering packages. Watched one delivery on my street a few houses down-- they are quite large as far as non-military drones go.
 
The site isn't far from where I live. It IS outside the Tampa mode C veil and almost 15 miles from Lakeland.

But there is also a lot of seaplane activity along a line of Winter Haven, west to Auburndale, then north to I-4. I frequently see planes landing on Lake Juliana, about 1.5 miles east of the site and lots more on nearby lakes.
 
bflynn said:
The site isn't far from where I live. It IS outside the Tampa mode C veil and almost 15 miles from Lakeland.

But there is also a lot of seaplane activity along a line of Winter Haven, west to Auburndale, then north to I-4. I frequently see planes landing on Lake Juliana, about 1.5 miles east of the site and lots more on nearby lakes.
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Yep. There is a small gap, maybe 12 miles, between the Orlando and Tampa mode C veils, and it creates a funnel for non-ADSB traffic. SunTrax is smack in the middle of it.

I’m probably a bit over-sensitized, as I well remember the mid-air collision we had at Winter Haven almost exactly two years ago. But we have significantly more traffic now than we did then.
 
That's annoying. And I'm in the camp of this never becoming viable at scale.
 
Remains to be seen how viable this project is. The airspace in question is overly saturated now.
 
I noticed Sebring has a runway down and when I googled it found out they are building vertipads for this.
 
If this does work some day it will be too expensive for 99% of us to use.
 
I’m of the mind it will be like the helicopter taxis in New York if it ever matures— and by that I mean not a tool for the masses. I can see where the operators might be seeing $$’s because the acquisition and operating costs will be lower than a typical helicopter. I wonder where the pilots will come from. No way I’d ride in one if they decide to make it autonomous instead.
 
tsts4 said:
I’m of the mind it will be like the helicopter taxis in New York if it ever matures— and by that I mean not a tool for the masses. I can see where the operators might be seeing $$’s because the acquisition and operating costs will be lower than a typical helicopter. I wonder where the pilots will come from. No way I’d ride in one if they decide to make it autonomous instead.
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The proposed acquisition and operating cost are lower. None of those have been realized yet. My theory is the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists that think they have found a magic loophole for cheap air travel will be disappointed. The technology is innovative and cool, but the basic regulatory and financials haven't changed.
 
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