I want to make my fortune in business . .
Jings, the old "if only I could find a gap in the market" dream.
Most people under retirement age, carry a phone on them that transmits and receives on every band available in every country on the planet (the phone also has the ability to tell where it is and restricts itself to bands legally allowed based on where it is)
A transponder in my glider (and I have a nice unit manufactured by a nice wee Scottish company) is less use to me per gramme than the sandwiches I carry.
The _only_ thing having a transponder active does is reduce the queries from ATC as to my current alt.
It gives me no traffic information at all.
Flarm, does give me traffic info and as it is built into my primary nav computer, weighs nothing and takes up no space, so is very useful.
ADSB, which I could enable given the hardware I'm carrying, could be even better as I would have Flarm and ADSB for a TCAS system, but, the powers that be state I have to install another, certified GPS system (and given that I carry 5 separate GPS systems now . . . ) I'm just not playing that game.
(LX gps x 2, Oudie gps x 1, InReach gps x 1, Samsung gps x 1)
The current certification / legislation / approval of TCAS is a disaster, it's run by coffin dodgers who still believe a map and a stopwatch is the way to demonstrate that you can navigate your way around the sky.
Those with one foot slightly further from the grave believe that carrying a transponder helps you avoid collisions based on, based on, I have no idea what this is based on as my transponder tells me what code I'm transmitting. and nothing else.(maybe there are transponders out there that tell you what else is flying around you ? but I don't have one)
Drop the hurdles and allow manufacturers to come up with one compact box that does Flarm / TCAS / Transponder function.
Back to the letter from the BGA, I still think encouraging glider pilots to talk to traffic units is a good idea, I applaud them for doing so.
There is a bigger problem we have to deal with.
Those who want to play at being "Nigel" will never look out the window, we need a cheap, reliable (but dear god,not certified) method of avoiding spam can drivers when we are out actually flying.
The "Nigels" need a way of seeing us While they are Rodgering Rodger and Wilcoing Charlie, but don't make it too complicated for them . .
Drop the certification requirement and the units in question will be light, cheap and reliable (I know this as your phone is not certified and it is light, cheap and reliable)