Euro experience from hang glide list
Bizjet collides with glider in Nevada
Posted by: "Bart Doets" bart.doets@
Wed Aug 30, 2006 12:31 am (PST)
----- Original Message -----
From: "xcnick4" xcnick4@

The fear is that gliding will be considered unsafe without Mode S
transponders and they will make us all buy these gismos. Great
Britain is facing this realty right now. Who is next? Hang gliders?
Paragliders? Geese?

Dunno how this is going in the USA, but in Europe it has already been
decided that HGs and PGs (and ULs etc.) must have mode S transponders.
The
only thing that has postponed the actual effectuation of the decision
is,
that there were no transponders on the market that would do the job
working
on battery power.
Seems right now there are transponders in a range from 1350 to 2000
Euros
($1627-2410) that are supposed to work 4-5 hours. (Remember how the
first
useable GPS's would not work by far as long as they were supposed to?)
I am a bit worried about the seemingly waiting mode that the European
HG
orgs are in. As far as I know only the British org has sort of called
up its
members, but it might be far too late anyway - the decision is cast
years
ago. The only thing that really might help us out is the marketing of a
mode
S transponder at a price of just a couple of hundred euros max, like
the
first GPS's that really hit big (Garmin 38).

A couple of weeks ago, a colleague of mine took me on a flight in a
motorglider, from Hilversum airfield in the centre of Holland.
Hilversum is
close to the edge of Schiphol(Amsterdam airport) CTR.
My colleague told me: "This plane is equipped with a transponder, but
following a request from Schiphol tower we keep it switched off most of
the
time. Seems all those tiny bleeps and bloops along the edge of their
CTR are
unnecessarily complicating their work."

I'm really worried that the transponder obligation will effectively
kill all
but the most expensive non-motorized flying. To a glass glider it may
only
be a small raise in cost, but for many hanggliders it will be out of
proportion. And... would it really help?

Bart Doets
Holland

T o d d P a t t i s t wrote:
Eric Greenwell wrote:

Todd, I know you may not have intended it that way, but some people do
take it that way, and that is one of the reasons/excuses I hear for not
installing a transponder.

I certainly did not intend it as a discouragement for
installation of transponders, but it's a concern I've heard
expressed too. I'd like to see the FAA make it legal for
the transponder to be turned off in gliders to remove this
excuse/concern. I consider anyone who buys a transponder
and installs it, but turns it off when needed to save
batteries, to be someone who is concerned about improving
safety. That's why I called it a "good deed" but having a
midair with it off is a scary possibility given the current
FARs.
--
T o d d P a t t i s t - "WH" Ventus C
(Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)