I think dual watch is better option than to scan many irrelivant freqs and as
people upgrade radios within gliding there will be more dual watch in use. If
there is chatter on ATC or a CTAF I tend to lower volume in order to
concentrate on my glider flying.
Having recently been written up over a near miss with a Saab 340 of REX and my
glider I will put extra effort into knowing IFR routes into regional airports
and will check the ETAs of RPTs into these airports so I can be on there freq
(usually CTAF) as they do their decent below 10000ft (20 to 30 NM out) into
these regional airports. In the days when I learnt gliding we would have to be
on the gound 30 min before RPT ETAs and 10min after the departure of RPTs so
freedom is better these days!!
A friend who is an ATPL pilot thinks we in gliding should offer to fund the use
of FLARMS into many of Rex Saabs + some of Qlink Dash 8s. I am uncertain myself
but I do mix with RPT jets near a regional airport & they love me when they can
see me on TCAS.
Ian McPhee
-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Wilson <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, 21 April 2012 9:11
To: 'Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia.'
<[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Radio & near collision.
I watch this radio discussion with interest.
Airspace is a big haystack out there and the needles are small. Some gliders
have FLARM, but powered aircraft dont.
5, or is it 10, light aircraft pilots need to be aware that there could be 200
VFR gliders airborne in G airspace between Waikerie, Benalla and Queensland on
most sunny summer days.
In my history I once worked in management of avionic fits to many aircraft and
the big issue is getting compatible equipment fitted to all thousands of
existing flying aircraft. A task generally found to be insurmountable!
Secondary Surveillance Radar even mode C is rudimentary in our age of
computers and data. SSR data is basically allows radar or ground stations to
determine position and altitude whereas flight management systems in aircraft
know where the aircraft is going and when it will be there in microseconds ..
and where it is going next. SSR is poor use of valuable RF spectrum and time.
But it is fitted to most powered aircraft.
Radios simplex, slow, ambiguous, voice communications will never solve the
safety issue, and eyesight wont either, but they all help.
But voice radio is fitted to the majority of aircraft and has capabilities
seldom activated that could assist safety [and confusion]. Microairs have a
scan mode, selectable in two switch flicks. The radio will then scan all
frequencies in its memory and stop on any that are active. Perhaps we should
select scan mode whenever outside the local circuit area and scan all local
frequencies.
Over.
Alan Wilson Canberra Gliding Club, ex RAAF, CPL, 3 Diamonds etc.
PS. In WWII they used ground controlled radar approaches to talk basic pilots
with only basic gyro instruments back to the runway. Then they installed ILS
and required instrument rated pilots.
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lucas James
Sent: Saturday, 21 April, 2012 11:02
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Radio & near collision.
On 20/04/2012 21:37, Simon Hackett wrote:
In the unlikely event you've not all seen it already, here's one way the
outcome could have turned out:
http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/007288.html
I will say that while I appreciate its an issue that more than a few glider
pilots seem passionately opposed to for their own reasons, the notion of
regularly operating transponders in gliders is one that I personally believe
would be of active assistance here (I certainly do so).
I think that doing so could directly improve safety in this regard [noting that
the link above indicates the glider concerned had one, but it wasn't powered up
- like all electronics, its far less effective when its switched off]
I'm not directly arguing for mandating transponders in gliders (and not
specifically seeking to re-start that particular debate).
Rather, I'm just indicating there are significant merits in choosing to operate
a transponder in a glider, because having ATC and TCAS equipped powered
aircraft able to see *you* is definitely a source of additional alerted
avoidance of mid air collisions - whether or not you have something in your
glider that works in the other direction.
I've found that air traffic control is frequently helpful to VFR and IFR
aircraft, in that they will call you up proactively and advise of the presence
of transponder-equipped unidentified traffic in your vicinity on a pretty
routine basis. They're as interested in avoiding mid air contacts as the rest
of us are.
In addition, aircraft like the powered plane I'm fortunate enough to fly also
paints any aircraft with a working transponder on my moving map... with
position, relative altitude, and aural and visual alerting of nearby traffic.
This is becoming very much more common over time, and increasingly affordable
as a retrofit as well (cf. Zaon units, and the always-nearly-available Power
FLARM units).
As for all of the other ways we might become aware of another aircraft in our
vicinity (Mark I eyeball, use of VHF radio, FLARM, hang glider pilot screaming
obscenities after a powered aircraft or glider passes too close, etc)... having
one more way to avoid a collision has to be a good thing, IMHO.
Anyway - we all do the best we can. And if we keep looking out for (and looking
after) each other, hopefully we can continue to minimise the chances of such
collisions overall.
Last thought I have here is that I reckon it'd be great if CASA (via the GFA?)
was asked about the notion of allocating a generic transponder code for
transponder-equipped gliders to use instead of 1200. That would help ATC to be
sure that what they are seeing is a glider, and hence would help them to inform
other traffic more usefully about the likely tracking characteristics of a
glider they may wish to alert other traffic about.
Regards,
Simon
For all that want to read the report:
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief2.aspx?ev_id=20060906X01297&ntsbno=LAX06FA277B&akey=2
And the recommendations:
http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/recletters/2008/a08_10_13.pdf
http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/recletters/2008/a08_14_15.pdf
regards,
Lucas
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