Larry Flesner wrote: > Anyway, while stumbling about the internet I came across > "https://flightaware.com/live/airport/KMWA"; and selected my home > airport. It had both my flights logged, I guess with ADS-B.
Not only that, but apparently we show up on "the scope" in towers and control centers now. A few months ago I was flying in "marginal VFR" conditions near my local towered airport, dodging cloud banks and in the process of climbing up to 10,500'. I was monitoring the local tower frequency when another pilot was warned about my position with respect to theirs, and when the guy said he didn't see me, they called me on the radio by tail number, asking if I was on the frequency and knew he was there! I wasn't in their airspace, but pretty close to it. I acknowledged that I "have him on the scope", and they were happy with that. So yes, I assume that's NEXTGEN technology in the tower now.
Fast forward to last Monday when I was flying over my father's farm down in south Alabama, doing a couple of circles taking photos, starting my climb back to return home. There was a lot of military helicopter traffic converging on the nearby airport, and again, one of them was advised of my presence, and the control center guy also mentioned that he couldn't give an altitude, because I "had my Mode C turned off"! This was news to me, and my Becker transponder was showing that I was climbing through the 5000's. When I got back to Huntsville I asked the tower if they were getting an altitude, and indeed they were not.
When I got home I checked the PAPR report and had a 100% "baro alt" failure, so I emailed Becker with the description of my problem (transponder knew what altitude it was at, but wasn't actually reporting it), and they said they knew just how to fix that and it would likely be about $250 with a two day turnaround. To their credit, they fixed it the day they received it, and returned it immediately. I reinstalled it yesterday and flew it, getting a clean PAPR report, and happy again that folks know my altitude. I don't see it as such a bad thing when we can all easily watch out for each other, un-nerving as it is. Given that the FAA is certainly aware of this incident, I'm also happy that I had my transponder "verified" with my encoder earlier this year, just in case they come calling. Becker also re calibrated it while they had it, so I'm double good now. I'm also quite relieved that I didn't have do buy a new transponder, because transponders that mount in a 2.25" instrument hole are awesomely expensive these days, with almost none available used, that I could find....
Mark Langford m...@n56ml.com http://www.n56ml.com Huntsville, AL _______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/. Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change options. To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@list.krnet.org
