"Barry" wrote in message
...
I hope you tracked the intruder to his destination.

No I didn't. My supervisor and I had a very short discussion about
doing so and then decided we could prove nothing. Could have
been bad mode C, no way to prove he was not VMC, the Baron
never saw him etc etc.

In what situations would you decide to track the traffic? I'm curious
because one very clear night I didn't feel like bothering with Phila.
Approach and just overflew the Philadelphia Class B VFR at 7500 enroute to
Atlantic City. When I called ACY Approach, they told me that Phila.
wanted
to talk to me. I called after landing, and Phila. said they showed me
below
7000 for part of the time, thus in their Class B without a clearance. I
assured them I was at 7500 the whole time, and agreed to get the Mode C
checked (it was due the next month anyway). Is ATC more likely to pursue
a
possible Class B violation than a rogue IMC?


These days I have to be careful about what I say on the net. Like you point
out, we have the ability to track you. We do track suspected airspace
violators, especially Class B. We don't do the enforcement end so I don't
know what the burden of proof is other than an actual visual sighting etc
but I'd say yes, we are far more likely to pursue a probable Class B
violator than a probable rogue IMC. After all, the Class B (or A or C or D)
is actually there all of the time and always monitored, whereas something
like weather conditions at a given point in time and space is rather
fleeting and subjective.


That "bad Mode C" angle is a factor too. We get guys from time to time
showing up in Class A airspace indicating FL255 or so, VFR. We are usually
pretty sure they are actually down in the weeds with bad Mode C, but we have
no safe way to tell and so treat them as intruders while they display they
are in the flight levels. However, we don't track them unless they appear
to fly hundreds of miles at the same displayed altitude. There is an old
war story that goes around ZTL (and probably other Centers) about a Sun and
Fun weekend where ZTL tracked a VFR aircraft that flew from somewhere north
of the Ohio River all the way down to Florida, indicating FL275. An air
carrier over Alma Georgia got a visual on it and reported it as a P-51, so
ZJX tagged up the target and ATC followed it all the way into Lakeland.
However, allegedly FSDO couldn't ever prove an enforcement because the pilot
claimed that he had been VFR at 17,500 the whole time. Dunno if this story
is fact or fiction. Several ZTL old timers swore they were involved when I
heard it here, but I have since heard a similar story (same theme) about an
Oshkosh-bound P-47 as I was enjoying a cold malted beverage with some Kansas
City Center guys. You know war stories.

Chip, ZTL




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