Case Study Near Mid Air Glider and C421 - Benefits of PowerFlarm and Transponders

Walt, thanks for the great info, and thanks for following up with this with he FAA. That radar tape is frustrating to watch. Mr. Golden Eagle maybe ought to be investing in some ADS-B Out/In (and/or TCAS/TCAD) technology.

On Tuesday, January 19, 2016 at 11:09:34 PM UTC-8, WaltWX wrote:

When you listen to the audio/video you will see a red "CA" meaning Conflict Alert going off for the controller. This went off at 33 seconds. If FAA modified their ADS-B ERAM software, they could send out ADS-B packets for aircraft on a collision course. PowerFlarm would then have given plenty of warning without cluttering the bandwidth of ADS-B with unnecessary information. This recommendation was made to the FSDO FAA representative who interviewed me.

I'm not sure the PowerFLARM would receive this, if it is a TIS-B style message, my understanding is it would not. But yes ideally for lots of reasons the FAA would have thought all this through a decade ago and just broadcast blind TIS-B transponder traffic conflicts like this on both ADS-B links. That would likely be a useful safety improvement for lots of GA traffic.... I would hope not, but I do would not be totally surprised in the past if some factions within the FAA may have been concerned about doing that as it decreases incentives for traffic to equip with complaint ADS-B Out.

I know lots of the glider pilots who fly in your area are fantastic at working working with ATC, Joshua Approach etc. One thing that listening to that tape that maybe shows is the benefit of having a airband radio with channel monitoring listening to ATC. Now overall is that distraction worth it? Maybe, maybe not. In some hotspots I'm sure it is. If I was buying a radio now, that feature be on my want-list.

A local SF bay Area hot-spot for GA traffic is near Travis AFB where there are lots of GA traffic exiting under the SFO Class B. Travis Approach/RAPCON are usually great to work with. Listening to them give traffic advisories about gliders etc. is eye opening. There is just a lot of frigging traffic there. And they may be totally blind to any non-transponder equipped traffic (because of doppler noise from lots of wind farms near Travis AFB). and calling 'em up and requesting flight following for gliders. Oh yes and lots of USAF C-5 Galaxies flying around (all with TCAS II.. so definitely transponder material).