"A Guide to Transponders in Sailplanes" - updated!
Darryl Ramm wrote:
I suspect it is to prevent thinking like "I'll just turn this little
box off and bust whatever FAR I feel like cuz noboby can see me" (even
if ATC can see you as a primary on radar).
And "turning the little box off" is more deleterious to safety, or
enforcement, than no installation at all?
Seems a perfectly fine
requirement for a powered aircraft and I'd be surprised if gliders
were front and center in any thinking about this requirement.
Agreed. Gliders are not often a concern. So why restrict gliders?
...the FAA seems to be showing perfect restraint in not
enforcing the thing you seemed concerned about, and therefore helping
encourage use of transponders in sailplanes.
I'm sure there are several practical considerations involved, including
the difficulty of enforcement. But when an agency "chooses" to enforce
or not enforce a particular reg, alarm bells ought to go off everywhere.
I don't dispute there are mostly rational people in the FAA. My dealings
with them have always been satisfactory. The problem is the process,
which does not seem very rational. The production of incompletely
structured, yet overly complex, regulations is pervasive in aviation, as
elsewhere.
For many people flying in high-traffic areas, and that's a lot more
than just around Reno, it is not outrageous to expect them to install
batteries (and/or possibly solar panels at significantly higher cost)
so they can operate transponders thought quite long flights. So there
is no need to turn off those transponders - and in those areas that
*is* a safety of flight issue.
It is reasonable that a transponder installation will include adequate
power to insure required operation of the equipment, when the
requirement is based on traffic management. It is not reasonable to
require that the installation will support operation in circumstances
where traffic management by ATC is not an issue. Decisions regarding use
of the transponder in circumstances not involving traffic separation or
National Security concerns should be left to the operator.
Non-enforcement is a non-reason. That can change overnight. If a rule is
illogical, or realistically unenforceable, or counter-productive, then
it ought not be a rule.
Jack
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