LOL! Sorry folks, I was about two glasses of a rather nice wine over my usual quota last night when I added my little rant
Mind you, it's quite nice to vent the spleen now and then
Hopefully this post won't turn into a rant also (I'm time limited so it can't really
)
My rant was born of the frustration of seeing threads like this come up with monotonous regularity. The same old arguments over and over and what's worse, is that if I'm honest, it's an argument I seem to be loosing, and nobody likes to loose do they? The CAA would happily have seen everything unable to carry a transponder grounded. They lost a battle because of the PFA, BGA, BMAA ect, but I fear the war is far from over. I'm hopeful that sense has been seen, but so many pilots now seem to be blinkered into thinking that their experience of aviation is the basis for all. We could keep replacing bits from our light aircraft with "other" bits that make us more visible ... but where do we draw the line? Remove the heaviest bit (the pilot)? ............ It's OK, I am joking
I have nothing against modern technology, but until it's practical for all ... it's not really practical at all! It would be rather ironic for someone to go out and buy all the kit, only to fly smack bang into a sailplane in cloud because they assumed that all the non transponder stuff would be low down and of little risk
I'm sure I heard the glider boys in Euroland had come up with a gps based avoidance system of some merit? Perhaps we're just looking at the wrong technology? Surely there must be a system that doesn't involve powerful radio transmitters, high power consumption, size and weight? I'm seriously looking at building a Thatcher CX4 as my next project. It has a much larger cockpit than my T31 and a lot more performance. I'd be quite keen to add some electrickery, but I'd prefer to use the space and weight limitations to add stuff that actually makes sense, rather than just false hope! I've had a couple of "gezzzus"! encounters before, so I'm no die hard "eye ball saves all" type, but what use is TAS, TCAS in a busy circuit where the risk is highest?
More to say, but coffee break is over
SS