Very informative, thanks!

I was speaking to an airline captain/glider pilot this morning. He told me
that, when he flies around Moriarty he keeps his radio tuned to ABQ approach
so he can monitor traffic. He also talks with ABQ to insure they know that
he's there. He uses a transponder and MRX. I'll be equipped that wan next
time I fly.

I'm going to start doing that, too.

Dan


"SoaringXCellence" wrote in message
...
OK, I've got to put my two cents in here. First: I'm a CFI, CFII, CFI-G
Commercial SEL, MEL, and Glider. Twenty years as an active instructor with
over 5000 hours in power and 400 in gliders, most of the time in both as an
instructor, over 1000 hours of Instrument instruction and more than 1500
cross-country power. I also have over 1000 hours in TCAS equipped aircraft.

Let's talk transponders and ATC. Regarding "traffic alerts", ATC issues them
to PARTICIPATING aircraft. That term means that both aircraft are in radio
contact with ATC. ATC does issue alerts that call attention to other radar
returns, but without having talked to the pilot, the traffic is
"unverified". This makes it a nuisance alert as there is no way to be sure
what altitude to scan and it often increases the workload at a critical
flight phase.

In high density areas, near major airports the controller can selectively
hide non-participating (I.E 1200 or 1202, or any other standard code) to
de-clutter the screen. These VFR targets are not called out as they are not
SEEN by the controller unless they are an immediate threat to a
participating aircraft.

I have had TCAS systems alerting me to traffic that is 2 miles away, or
less, in VFR conditions, and try as I do, I still cannot find them with the
naked eye (my recently measured vision is better than 20/15 in both eyes,
just to cover that question). TCAS in any form, including PF, even combined
with the old Mark 1 eyeball does not mean you'll acquire all traffic in the
area.

I fly for one of the largest flight schools in the PacNW and when I take one
of the TCAS equipped aircraft into the practice area I am always amazed at
the number of detected A/C that I know are there but cannot see.

The glider club that I belong to has a safety meeting every spring, where we
have a number of presentations. One of them is always delivered by an
instrument rated pilot that explains how the approaches and departure routes
around out area work. In addition, one of the pilots took the time to plot
all the "waypoints" and associated altitudes and we added it to our local
turnpoint files. I think this puts us already working on two of the points
noted before.

Our club bought two PF and the majority of the private gliders owners also
bought them. I bought a PF portable so I can have one with me in any of the
club gliders I fly. With all of this, I'm convinced that we cannot reduce
the risk much more than we have already.

I accept that one of the most frightening scenarios is a mid-air. In
reality, I think we need to turn our collective attention to the other, more
consistent causes of pilot fatalities having to do with take-off, landing
and pilot judgement errors that claim many more lives than the mid-air.

I recommend Tom Knuaff's articles on the causes of accident's, published
both in 2010 and this year. PowerFlarm and transponders are not going to
fix the major cause of accidents among glider pilots.

Mike