Kilo Charlie wrote:

The main worry for me are those long flat final glides from north to south
starting at 17,999 feet and 100 miles out....I can't even see the guys that
I know are half a mile in front of me so there is no way some 37 crew on
approach is going to see me on a final glide. I don't wish to end up with a
37 enema. But on a more serious note if it did happen you can bet that it
would change the face of glider flying overnight esp if it took down bunch
of passengers along with it. This is why I have been less interested in
requiring the ELT systems and more interested in figuring out a way to equip
all of us with transponders at cheaper than now available prices.

I don't see any hope for cheaper transponders until the dollar gets a
lot stronger against the Euro (Becker, Filser) or the Australian dollar
(Microair), or China decides airplane owners have more bucks than
Wal-Mart or even Harbor Freight.

Another approach to the problem are the "TPAS" units that detect
transponders, such as sold by Proxalert, Monroy, and Surecheck. It's a
different solution, cheaper, but relies on the glider pilot to make the
evasive maneuvers. Four of us are presenting these options and others at
the SSA convention, and we plan to make the presentations available on
the web somewhere, for those that don't get to the convention.


--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA