Zaon Flight Systems, the maker of the popular PCAS portable traffic alerting system, has ceased operation according to Sporty’s Pilot Shop and Aircraft Spruce and Specialty, two of the company’s largest distributors. Both distributors told AVweb that Zaon “is out of business” and couldn’t offer any suggestions for obtaining support for existing Zaon products.Zaon introduced the first portable collision avoidance solution-the TPAS-nearly a decade ago, selling over 3000 units in just a few years. The follow-on product was the TrafficScope, introduced in 2003. It too was a huge success, with over 4000 units sold. Finally, the PCAS line, which included the XRX and MRX portable traffic alerters, were the current generation models. The PCAS-XRX was a popular traffic solution because of its 3-D view Quadrant Direction function, audio voice alerts, built-in altimeter and the ability to interface with third-party displays, to include Garmin portable GPS and experimental EFIS systems.
Most recently, Zaon introduced an add-on ADS-B interface to the XRX with the MX1090-series ADS-B traffic receiver. The MX1090 could receive TIS-B messages, bringing the portable traffic solution to a higher level. Zaon could not be reached for comment because the company’s phone numbers don’t work. The company website, Zaon.aero, is still in service, and the online store appears to work.
