Typhoons Need Midair Collision Avoidance System, Safety Officials Say
DV and Tourist.
Your discussion reminds me a little of the 'whale is heavier, but the dinosaur was longer argument'. You're never going to reach a resolution.
Neither of you is really looking at it from the others viewpoint. Tourist you clearly have a lot of airborne experience which I respect. DV your crusade is both admirable and well intentioned.
Please allow me to be the man that bridges the gap. I've never flown the Typhoon or Tornado, but I have operated the Hawk T1, T2, 115 and Jaguar (similar to the Tornado for the sake of this argument). I also served as the UFSO for the Hawk T2 so I know a thing or two about risk matrices and ALARP etc.
Trying to justify TCAS to a pilot by citing paperwork is never going to get you very far. Likewise citing unsubstantiated testimony without evidence to support it won't cut the mustard.
However based on what I have experienced I would rather we fitted TCAS to all FJs now.
As I have said previously TCAS II is not perfect for FJ use. I just fail to see a good reason not to fit it in this day and age. Some people will grumble and we'll never really know if it prevented any accidents but we can't keep prevaricating whilst we wait for the gold plated solution. If it is not fitted then I hope the SoS has the balls to own the risk. After all money will be the reason why and you can't really blame the military for that.
Honestly I think many Typhoon guys would laugh at the limitations of the current system but they'd soon get over it. It's not always 9G and vertical climbs.
I don't expect this to be the final word, just my two penn'orth as they say.
BV
Last edited by Bob Viking; 20th Jan 2015 at 15:50.