Mode-S for spam cans?

In article ,
Roy Smith wrote:
My club has started thinking about putting Mode-S transponders in our
aircraft (3 Archers, 2 Arrows, 2 Bonanzas), to take advantage of traffic
advisory information.

Does anybody here have Mode-S in their plane now? Do you make use of
the traffic info? How well does it work? How easy is it to use? What
do you display the info on?

Is the technology mature enough to invest in today, or do we risk being
on the bleeding edge? One possible route we're thinking of is not
investing wholesale in Mode-S, but waiting for our existing xponders to
die and specify Mode-S in the replacement units.


I'm cheap, so I may not be the opinion that you're looking for, but if I
had perfectly good transponders I probably wouldn't ditch them. I have
a King KT-78 that is probably going to need replaced in the next few
years, although I THOUGHT it was going to need replaced last summer, so
I considered my options. I don't have any way to display traffic info
(no MFD, no GNS430, etc.) and I don't plan to invest in any of that any
time soon, so I decided that the significant extra expense of the Mode-S
was't worth it at this time. I figured that if I do go the MFD route,
I'd just swap out the transponder later. Fortunately, I don't need a
new transponder just yet, and when I do need one I will probably
re-evaluate based on what else is in my panel at the time. If I had a
MFD I would probably get the Mode-S transponder. My single greatest
fear is traffic that I don't see, which is likely a greater factor in
areas where TIS is available.


JKG