Midair near Minden

T o d d P a t t i s t wrote:
Marc Ramsey wrote:


But, I fly with the
electrical system I have, not the one I might want, so the transponder
usually goes off in the boonies...

Which would apparently put you in violation of 91.215(c)
(requires transponder on) when your transponder is OFF if it
meets the requirements of 91.413 and in violation of
91.413(a) when your transponder is ON if it does not meet
those requirements. No good deed goes unpunished.

So far, I believe it has gone unpunished: does anyone know of a glider
pilot cited for turning off his transponder? I couldn't find anyone that
knew of that when I wrote my article for Soaring (Feb 2002), and I
haven't heard of anyone since then, either.

FAA officials have told SSA officials, unofficially of course, that they
are happy to have glider pilots put transponders in their gliders, even
if they don't have them on all the time. I don't think we should be
discouraging transponder use, even unintentionally, by bringing up the
"always on" requirement. The FAA understands that requirement makes
sense for airplanes but not gliders, and that someone willing to spend
the money and effort to install safety equipment that is not required of
them should be commended (at least off the record), not scolded.

Todd, I know you may not have intended it that way, but some people do
take it that way, and that is one of the reasons/excuses I hear for not
installing a transponder.

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Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA

www.motorglider.org - Download "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane
Operation"