Peter wrote:
It would be hugely controversial here in EuropeWhy would it be controversial?
here in Europe there is no airborne wx over ADS-BThat is such a pity.
Why would it be controversial?
The total emphasis during PPL training for keeping a lookout, but much more importantly the denial within the training system that most traffic is never spotted. Consequently most pilots are really shocked when they fly in a plane with TCAS… and that shows only those who have a transponder and have not turned it off for some nefarious reason 
Peter wrote:
The total emphasis during PPL training for keeping a lookout, but much more importantly the denial within the training system that most traffic is never spotted.
There is also very few mid air accidents, maybe less than 1% of the total accidents. Even in the US the effect will not even be measurable with any statistical significance.
It will be like turning on the lights for sure. Towing gliders with and without a FLARM has the same effect. But gliders fly real tight, meters apart and are very difficult to spot.
This ADSB seems to me to be even more crazy than 8.33 and mode S combined.
LeSving wrote:
This ADSB seems to me to be even more crazy than 8.33 and mode S combined.
But ADS-B isn’t just being done for collision avoidance. It is a complete change in the way ATC surveillance is going to take place. At least unlike mode S and 8.33 it has some spin-off benefits for GA. Although sadly these are not anywhere near as compelling for European pilots given the lack of the right bandwidth for in flight weather and a lack of resolve to try to provide it.
We have already had plenty of ADS-B threads but IMHO ADS-B will never be mandatory for VFR OCAS in most of Europe – just as Mode S isn’t. And everybody who currently wants to be invisible (for the usual reasons… a IMHO mostly misguided sense of privacy, to operate “below the radar” because of something illegal about the plane, to be able to bust CAS from underneath, etc) will remain invisible, by turning it off.
So the usefulness of ADS-B based traffic warnings will be about the same as the usefulness of Mode S (or even Mode C) is today.
That’s unless ADS-B is made mandatory… is that happening in the USA, for all VFR OCAS?
Peter wrote:
So the usefulness of ADS-B based traffic warnings will be about the same as the usefulness of Mode S (or even Mode C) is today.
The US rules are complex in that they apply if you want to fly in or near controlled airspace. There are also altitude limits. This summarises. Esentially above 10k feet it is mandatory IFR or VFR as class E is everywhere.
I would differ from your quote in that if you have some form of ADS-B in either tablet or installed, the traffic alerts are far better than mode S in that they have the actual GPS position of the aircraft not based on signal strength and azimuth as currently used in traffic systems.
Peter wrote:
a IMHO mostly misguided sense of privacy, to operate “below the radar” because of something illegal about the plane, to be able to bust CAS from underneath, etc) will remain invisible, by turning it off.
Not at all, and it doesn’t help in the discussion to mock people who do care about privacy and don’t want to be tracked by everybody and his dog on every flight.
Presumably the USA solves the privacy issue using the anonymous mode of UAT.
You can’t be tracked if you radiate Mode C (except by govt agencies) yet many people here in the UK will turn off Mode C “for privacy” too. That’s not mockery; that is pure stupidity! Somebody who is that worried needs to get a Long-EZ which is reportedly popular in S American drug running due to a low radar cross-section Actually I am sure many ultralights are just as good, and can be landed in tiny fields.
Of course the problem is that those who installed Mode S (for mission capability for more hassle-free European touring) cannot have Mode C ON without Mode S being radiated… and no doubt Europe will never offer any kind of anonymous ADS-B.
How does the USA deal with the privacy issues in general, or don’t US pilots worry too much about it?
