IO540 wrote .....
<What Mode S will do (assuming people don't contravene the coming regulations and leave the transponder switched on) is that it will make it easier to identify aircraft infringing some airspace. But its primary purpose is for more efficient air traffic control, which is there mostly for the airlines.>
<rant on>
It is on topic, as the introduction of Mode S in 2008, will have a £4000 (estimated) cost implication for me (for no gain), and a 3Kg weight penalty (again for no gain). Every Kg is important !
What interests me as an Area Control ATCO is how uttterly clutttered my presently cluttered radar screens will become if EVERYONE who is in the air is displayed on my screen.
At the moment, it is well near impossible to filter out all the low-level GA and military scooting around the Newcastle area. The screens can be VERY cluttered with SSR labels. I may be trying to control aircraft in the FL100-FL245 height band, but I daren't filter out the labels of traffic below that in case it is popping up or climbing out. I shudder to think what our wonderful 15 inch monitors
will look like if all microlights, PFA types, and balloons (that includes the bureacrats
) are inluded as well.
Doubt the accountants
in charge have thought of that one.
Interested too to know how many of the decision makers have recently worked a busy sector or controlled passenger carrying aeroplanes.
<rant off>