"Guy Acheson" wrote in message
...
Here in the USA our most common partners in the airspace
are power planes. Power planes have transponders.
I fly out of Minden, NV and for years had fairly regular
close encounters with power planes. Commercial planes
coming in and out of Reno would turn right at you,
your flight path goes accross standard flight paths
in and out of Reno. Military traffic was especially
scary with fighters and heavies just dropping out of
the cloud deck right on top of me or directly in my
flight path. Then I installed a transponder and my
experiences are very different.

My experience, also flying out of Minden, NV, mirrors Guy's. Reno Approach
(ATC) even has a transponder code (0440) set aside for VFR glider use - - so
they can tell what type of traffic we are when they point us out as traffic
advisories to other aircraft. Besides the transponder, I also fly with a
TPAS (transponder passive alert system), the Proxalert R-5. This helps alert
me to the presence of transponder equipped aircraft even if they are not
talking to ATC.

In managing the inherent risks of flying, it's wise to do what you
reasonably can to be safe. At least for relatively busy areas like Minden, I
think it's almost criminal to *not* use a transponder. As to do so, puts all
those people in airliners more at risk of a collision with an "unmarked" and
hard to visually acquire glider.

bumper