Originally Posted by
robin
Hmm
Don't bite me but there are any numbers of reasons why you didn't pick up a squawk from him and not all would be due to an inconsiderate pilot.
What irritates me are people carrying PCAS (a minority of GA pilots) criticising other pilots for not squawking Mode C (a majority of GA pilots).
Yes, it would be nice if everyone did, but the reality is that the majority can't at the moment.
There are two very different groups of pilots not squawking mode-C, those who can't for technical reasons (breaches empty weight, no electric system, etc.) and those who won't for philosophical reason. I have plenty of understanding for the first group and (at the moment) none for the second group.
Is there any reason an aircraft with an electrical system and no empty weight limit should not be squawking Mode C (other than in a close formation or other occasion when instructed by ATC not to squawk mode-c)? With the forced move of the IFR fleet to Mode-S, there must be quite a number of used transponders available and altitude encoding is a few hundred pounds to add to an existing transponder - so money shouldn't be an issue.