Originally Posted by Rod1
Do we really want to ground all this because some rich guys with all the toys cannot be bothered to work on lookout. If you all feel that without a transponder you are in too much danger to carry on flying then give up and let the rest of us have a bit more room to play with. I have always believed in the brotherhood of aviation, but perhaps I am just incredibly stupid.
I note you didn't take me up on my point about how useful looking out actually is. Aside from the aforementioned visibility issues, when flying under an inversion layer, or into a low sun, just how visible is a high wing aircraft climbing into the path of a low wing aircraft, from behind?
In 6k visibility, two aircraft approaching each other in a head on collision course, at a closing speed of 240kts, will have 50 seconds to take avoiding action. A full scan should take at least 20 seconds, so if the target was spotted at the end, rather than the beginning of the next scan, and you had a look at your map between scans, your reactions had better be sharp!
A "toy" could help in all those situations, but only if the "brotherhood of aviation" installs transponders.