On Sunday, October 15, 2017 at 2:37:12 PM UTC-7, JB Gunner wrote:
On Saturday, October 14, 2017 at 1:34:22 AM UTC-5, Rich Owen wrote:
Guys, I flew fighters for 22 years. The only time I turned my transponder off was in Libyia and during Desert Storm. Can’t say about my fellow fighter pilots but it was not the norm to leave mode C off. I think if you are in an area where military or civilian “fast movers” fly, a transponder is a smart move! It will never make up for good look out doctrine.

Cheers,
Rich

Thats strange from my experience. I only flew fighters from the late 1980s to the middle 2000s but every place I flew only lead turned on their transponder. So one out of 4 aircraft had it on. The other aircraft where often 1-2 thousand feet off in altitude and 1-2 nm miles spread and 2 miles in trail of each other.

Once in the MOA or IR/VR route the transponder was turned off by all players. It was turned back on by lead when getting a IFR clearance back to base.

When intercepting civilian aircraft flying through a MOA we where advised to ensure the mode c function was off as to not set off TCAS alerts on the aircraft being intercepted.

I'm concerned as a glider pilot with that practice... of turning off a fighter transponder in a MOA. How common is that practice.. addressed to any other fighter pilots out there? Most of my glider cross country occurs in a MOA. Sure would like to see fast movers on my PowerFlarm PCAS and in the near future through ADS-B out 1090ES