While you may be detected by ATC on primary without a transponder, you
wouldn't be detected by airliners and other aircrafts carrying TCAS and
will not give traffic resolution.

Another (secondary) reason to carry a transponder and leave it on, is
that if, god forbidden, you go down in a remote area, replaying ATC
tapes may help finding you.

Ramy

Ray Lovinggood wrote:
Doug,

You don't have to have a transponder to get the controllers
to know you are there. True, I'm not talking 'Flight
Following' but more like 'Flight Awareness.'

On occassions, I have called the local controllers
for the Class C airport (RDU) and let them know I was
there and was monitoring their frequency. They would
first reply to 'Squak' such and such and I would tell
them I didn't have a transponder. They would then
find me on radar. Ok, maybe they aren't as busy as
some other locations, but at least I make them aware
that I'm out there. Occassionaly, they might call
up and ask how I'm doing, and just being friendly.

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

At 12:36 30 August 2006, Doug Haluza wrote:
snoop wrote:

The one item, I'm curious to hear about, if, this
item, is on the
Reno/Minden Jeppesen IFR charts. I know it's on the
VFR sectionals, but
is there a glider icon on the IFR charts in that region?

Good point about getting the glider symbol on the IFR
charts. Most jet
jocks use these almost exclusively. The more we do
to raise awareness
the better.

Another way to raise awareness of glider trafiic is
to make Pireps. I
try to do this at least once on every good soaring
day, especially if
there is wave. Report your aircraft type as simply
a Glider (nobody
else will know or care what make/model you are flying).
You can just
report clear and 50 mi visibility, or give detailed
(and useful) info
on cloud layers and winds aloft. Pireps get wide dissemination
to
pilots, ATC and dispatchers, so this is a good way
to remind them that
we are out there too. Glider pilots who also fly commercially
will
appreciate hearing your Pirep when they are working
(try to make them
as jealous as possible by reporting from the top of
the climb!). You
can give Pireps to Flight Watch on 122.0 MHz, or you
can contact a FSS
or ATC facility on a discrete frequency. Check the
AIM for more info on
Pireps.

Another thing you can do is to get VFR flight following
if you have a
transponder. Again, just give your aircraft type as
a Glider. This lets
pilots and controllers in the section know we are out
there. It also
gets you a discrete transponder code. Most ATC sections
filter out 1200
VFR codes, and only view aircraft with discrete codes.
So in this case,
even if the glider's transponder was on, there is no
guarantee that the
controller even saw it, much less gave a traffic warning--they
are not
required to warn IFR aircraft of VFR targets anyway.

I know a lot of glider pilots like to stay out of the
system. But out
of sight is out of mind.