IFR outside CAS in the UK
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I mentioned TCAS only to make the point that if you fly with it, you will realise there is traffic "around" which a radar controller (providing a Traffic Service) has not reported to you.
Why not, I don't know. Can always be due to controller workload.
I don't have TCAS myself. Two reasons: As already stated above, a lot of people are non-transponding, but since they appear to be mostly at low levels, say below 2000ft, flying "high" is a pretty effective tactic which I have found to work over the 10 years I have been flying (looking at how many or how few VMC airproxes I get). And the installation involves a huge amount of downtime - around 4 weeks and that is starting from when the shop actually starts on it, and it assumes they work on it solidly. Cost is about £15k, in the UK.
Why not, I don't know. Can always be due to controller workload.
I don't have TCAS myself. Two reasons: As already stated above, a lot of people are non-transponding, but since they appear to be mostly at low levels, say below 2000ft, flying "high" is a pretty effective tactic which I have found to work over the 10 years I have been flying (looking at how many or how few VMC airproxes I get). And the installation involves a huge amount of downtime - around 4 weeks and that is starting from when the shop actually starts on it, and it assumes they work on it solidly. Cost is about £15k, in the UK.
Last edited by IO540; 19th Jan 2011 at 07:59.
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Droopystop: too many pilots put total reliance on TCAS in class G airspace, forgetting the fact that many aircraft are not detected because they don't carry a transponder.
I've been flying with TCAS for well over a decade and well over two decades prior to that without it.
I've never met one pilot who flies with TCAS who doesn't understand the limitations of the equipment and fails to look out. If anything, TCAS reminds the pilot to keep a good lookout.
But I've met (!) many pilots of aircraft not fitted with TCAS who don't see and avoid other aircraft when the rules of the air mean they are required to give way. Some of these pilots perhaps don't realise how many aircraft are really around them and unwittingly assume the skies are not so busy.
Flying with TCAS is quite literally an eye opener.
