5Z wrote:
See page 13 of this month's Soaring mag. THere's an excellent
depiction of where we may fly without transponder or comms. Having
said that, it's always a good idea to chat with the controllers if
(your and their) workload permits.

Tom:

Thanks for the kind words on my artwork.
I find that 91.215 is one of the least understood
FARs, both by pilots and controllers, so I had to make
a picture. The only tiny gaffe in publication was that
it does not show the right margin of red airspace in alignment
with the right lateral edge of the Class Charlie, in the upper
diagram.
Stand alone Class C does have the transponder requirement
for overflight below 10,000 only by squawking-1200-code
airframes.
Above 10,000 msl, we are blessed with the exemption from
a transponder, but all other airframes do have them up there....
(mostly), so the airliners think they will get traffic calls
on all hardware and thus fail to look out the window on even VFR days.
They presume that their TCAS and prox alerts and ATC buds will keep
them from ingesting plastic gliders. Hence, we all need to be the
See-and-Avoid vigilant ones.

Fly safely all,

Cindy B