IO540
“That depends on where you fly. If you fly at 1000ft then I agree 100%. If you fly at 3000ft+ then I am sure nearly all are Mode C/S equipped and transponding.
From my 900hrs of flying,”
The trouble is I have more than 900 hours, I actually fly one of these and I KNOW they fly 2-5000 ft on a regular basis!
“and how low they fly, and probably how far”
A typical 912 powered machine will climb at over 1000 fpm (mine is typically around 1700 fpm) and cruse at 100kn+ (mine does 138kn at 75%). Why would such aircraft a) fly low or B) stay at home. I am based on a strip with 18 other aircraft 2 of which have C of A and most fly significant distances and at normal GA levels using normal GA methods. The majority are flown by ex spamcan drivers who have found a “better” way. If you were to argue that weight shift micros were flown low you would have more of a point (about 3000 aircraft not transponder equipped), but now the engines are getting bigger you increasingly see them at 2-3000 ft too.
The LAA hold a series or regional rallys around the country. You will find 200 + aircraft a day visiting from all over the UK, with some from Europe. The picture of a home built / micro which is just capable of getting airborne is completely out of date. A CT Micro (factory built) will do 120kn with 4 hours fuel, nobody flyes such a machine at low level, too many ATZ, MATZ etc. The 12000 paramoters probably do fly low, but add in the gliders and traditional transponder equipped GA is a minority at 3000 ft on a summer’s weekend
I raise the above so that we all understand the problem. The CAA came in all guns blazing for every flying machine to be fitted with mandatory Mode S. Just a few short month ago they accepted it was an impossible dream for a host of reasons. Current technology transponders will never be made mandatory for all airspace users. If we are serious about improving separation we must go back to basics and be prepared to retrain people in better lookout and test to measure the improvement. This is the only game in town right now. If there is a form of airborne radar we can fit which detects non transponding aircraft, costs 2k and 2kg then I will buy one now, but until then go out and get your eyes tested and clean the canopy.
Rod1