you know..I sell transponders and have sold a lot of them to glider
owners....I have however been afraid from the start that once the FAA starts
to recognize larger numbers of gliders with transponders it could come back
to haunt us all...If we lose the exemption requiring transponders in
gliders, and we might now that the FAA sees that they can indeed be operated
from our battery power it could be just the straw that breaks the camels
back...Soaring as a sport isn't growing even now in the US, adding more cost
to owning and operating gliders surely will not help...to many clubs and
many owners adding $2000+ to each and every glider plus the added expense to
keep them certified and working will certainly take more club type and older
gliders off line. Large number of these gliders still today do not even have
radios installed. A large number of club gliders are still tied outside,
still have no battery installed many don't even have audio variometers let
alone radios, (I really do think all gliders should have at least a decent
radio and audio variometer for basic safety reasons even at small
out-of-the-way airports).
I hear a lot of grumbling about near misses while flying in and around
approaches to busy metro airports, while flying near military bases and so
on.....the simple truth is, if this is happening and I'm sure it is, the
answer is not in adding one more piece of electronics, the answer is in not
flying in these busy corridors....doing so will eventually cause this
airspace to be closed to all non-commercial aircraft and the eventual loss
of this and other airspace where traffic is not a problem and before we all
know it an end to soaring as we know it today in this country...Public
opinion will outnumber the small number of pilots wishing to fly for fun.
Let the evening news, 60 minutes or 20/20 run some special on the dangers
glider pilots pose to airliners and every politician will support the public
opinion polls and side with them to get votes.....the more we depend on
electronics the more we are keeping our heads down in the cockpits...with
GPS and pocket nav's to guide us, flight computers to calculate for us and
transponders to shield (?) us we are also forgetting what we started doing
this for to begin with....look outside, there is real beauty to be seen
through the clear mecaplex that surrounds us....fly safe, but always fly for
fun
BTW, I also sell canopy cleaner, but sales of this are on a steady decline..
tim


Now that battery-operated transponders are available, there is no reason
why
ALL non-electric aircraft should not be REQUIRED to have a transponder
installed.

Period.



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Jack
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