Originally Posted by
rans6andrew
Quote:
I realise that every geek in the south of the country will be tracking your every move and the air traffic folk will know who you are if you bust anyone's zone.
The "every geek tracking you" thing only works if you have a (certified) GPS device linked into the transponder. When the GPS is linked in, your location is output through ADS-B, which anyone (including TCAS type systems) can pick up.
Since you are talking about a microlight, you aren't going to have this, so all they will get (using their own equipment) is your identifier (so they know you are within transponder range).
I doubt that Nats publish their secondary radar derived data to all and sundry (otherwise airports wouldn't pay huge fees to get access to it). I don't think I can see any GA on
ADS-B flight data | NATS (although there are some higher end GA aircraft with hooked up certified GPSs and ADS-B out).
That linked LAST device is interesting - but the CAA / EASA will need to change the regs unless the GPS device contained in it is certified (not sure what that entails). I believe the last version that someone tried to release didn't get through the various hurdles. Fingers crossed though... Our Mode C transponder doesn't want to talk to an altitude encoder at the moment so is really Mode A. Hasn't caused us any airspace issues yet, but its on the list to be "looked at". If a cheap Mode S comes along we will probably jump!