Larry Dighera wrote:
radar energy as aluminum.

The issue in equipping gliders with transponders, the way I see it, is
the high power consumption required by transponders. Here's a typical
glider transponder: http://www.airplanegear.com/becker.htm
It seems to draw 175W to 250W. That's not insignificant, and way more
than the comm radio consumes. Then there's the weight and antenna
that reduce performance, not to mention the cost of the equipment,
installation, and maintenance.


You may have made a small mistake: 175 to 250 Watts
is the pulse output power. In the same document, the
current consumption is about a half ampere at 14 V,
which is 7 Watts.

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Tauno Voipio (CPL(A), avionics engineer)
tauno voipio (at) iki fi