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John, I would like to share this with you and the entire glider community
FWIW. I fly transport category aircraft for a living. I fly gliders and
small prop jobs for a hobby. I cannot over emphasis how critical
transponder usage is in this day and age. The airspace system has seen a
huge pressure to condense for the number of airspace users. For example
transport category aircraft is separated from another aircraft by only 1000
ft vertically above Flight Level 290(29000ft.)
The terminal airspace that is a 25 mile radius of a major airport is
overflowing and the Air Traffic Controllers are now spilling aircraft over
into other airspaces. Your EWR example is a perfect case.
In the lower altitudes of the controlled D airspace below 18000 along
airways and terminal areas, the transports rely on TCAS because we are
generally travelling anywhere from 4 to 9 miles per minute. I am a trained
general aviator and my head is outside of the cockpit 75% of
the time. For whatever reason sitting in the transport I can never see
traffic with the use of my own eyes before TCAS spots the traffic. It is
probably because of
my focal length is geared to looking farther down the road at 4 to 9 miles
per minute. When I get a TCAS alert I change my focal range to look for
traffic that is within 5 miles of my aircraft. At the speeds I fly I have
approximately 30 seconds to 1 minute to acquire visual contact
before I fly past the vfr target. I have flown in and out of RENO and a lot
up and down the CA coast. Looking for gliders in the owens valley has
always been
challenge. I have not seen one yet. I have seen them on TCAS but have never
visually acquired one.
The day is coming when a glider or a small aircraft will collide with
transport. The day that happens all gliders and GA aircraft will be
grounded since the transport industry is an economic contributor and will
not be punished for the incident. All General Aviators have a
responsibility to try to postpone that day. The transponder is a simple
solution to postponing that day. You can be part of the problem or part of
the solution. I wanna keep having the freedom to fly my glider. Thanks for
listening. Doug