Tcas - Ra

[ABO944]

Hello all!

I was wondering if any of you drivers out there have ever had a TCAS RA ?


Where, when, how close and did you require a change of underwear?

Thanks

[Jerricho]

Sorry dude, but I really can't see you getting many responses to this one.

[ABO944]

Is that cos you air traffic controllers are the daddy's?

They must happen, but perhaps no one will want to talk about it on here!?

What about a TA then ?????????

[7p3i7lot]

Yep sure have had one.
Going into KMDW (Midway Chicago airport) about a year ago. We were in the bottom of an overcast and there was a VFR target that started to climb up into us. We executed the procedure and informed approach control of our actions. They said "Roger, let me know when you return to altitude and heading".
Obviously we missed the VFR intruder and alit safely.
The system works! Follow the guidance and you will be safe.

[Slim20]

Is this question in response to the "fascinating" Ch5 programme about TCAS the other night?

It's a great system, it works, and it has increased flight safety. What more is there to say?

[Jerricho]

Is that cos you air traffic controllers are the daddy's?

Hell yes!!!

Seriously though, it is such a wide area. And I'm sure the professionalism of all our drivers out there wouldn't lower them to "Oh, I had this RA 'cause somebody else bust their level" or "ATC stuffed up" or "Yeah, I'm such a d*ck I stuffed up". I would have liked to have seen that Channel 5 program.

[ABO944]

I didnt see the channel 5 programme!

I live in sunny Portugal. We only have 4 channels over 'ere!

I was just asking as I was interested as to what happened! Just interested thats all!

Actually I have one of those cockpit videos on an A330 from Madchester to Orlando and they have an RA !

[APP Radar]

I cant' speak in behalf of the pilots but I've had some TCAS TA reports and 3 TCAS RA on frequency.

In Portugal TCAS TA are somehow frequent and mainly due to GA flying close to main airports without mode C information.

The TCAS RA reports were :
1st - from a civil flight carrying the head of state who was intercepted by Portuguese Air Force fighters after departure and someone forgot to advise the pilots
2nd - level burst
3rd - F-14 by Spannish Air orce leaving an exercise area and flying directly to home base "short of fuel". F-14 were not in the frequency and when in the area they were flying MARSA.

[Justforkix]

Never had a real one, but had a very interresting senario in the simulater last PC.

We were in a climb for FL140, at FL90 we got a "monitor vertical speed" as we were climbing with 3.000 feet per minute and the red band was up to 2.000 feet per minute we were well in the green band. Then the controller (instructor) told us to level off FL110 due traffic. At that point we called TCAS Climb to the controller (instructor) keeping the climb in the green band.

It sounds simple, but I had never thought about that senario.

[West Coast]

Another unique (and hopefully only seen in the sim) situation is a descending RA only to be followed by a GPWS alert for terrain which sends you heading back up away from the rocks but back at the traffic.

[AeroSpark]

Hi
Asking a slightly different question, when does TCAS tun on/off. I assume its off while on the ground otherwise you would be getting alerts every two seconds! Does it automatically come on at rotation or does it have to be switched manually?
Cheers

[West Coast]

Tcas in my experience is turned on with the txponder selection from standby to on which usually happens entering the runway till exiting the runway on the other end. I believe some older aircraft have a dedicated switch for activation of TCAS seperate from others avionics. TCAS RA on many aircraft reverts to TA capability only during critical phases of flight, 400 - 1000AGL. The voice capability is also supressed during this regime as to not distract the crew at low altitudes. These are my experiences, other models may operate in a different manner.

[EightsOnPylons]

Yes, that is true that it is selected on the transponder just before take off. If one engine is lost during flight the "TA" mode will be selected instead of the "TA/RA" mode. This is because if an encountered RA the aircraft performance is limited and might not be able to cope with the RA.

/eightsonpylons

http://www.b737.org.uk/transponder.jpg

[van der vart]

what is XPDR?and ALT Source?

and also can someone tell me what's the button ATC fail?

[Justforkix]

XPDR is Transponder on without altitude information.

ALT sorce is for selecting either airdatacomputer number 1 or 2 to the transponder for sending altitude information to the radar, shall be the same as the autopilot uses, so typically number 1 when the captain is flying and number 2 when the first officer is flying.

ATC fail is a light not a button, it comes on if the transponder fails.