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Old November 23rd 19, 02:56 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
b4soaring
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Default Portable TABS coming to the USA?

There are only 2 airports in the UK that have passenger carrying jet traffic in Class G; they are both very quiet, end of the country, coastal airports and one of them is trying to get a Class D CTR. Every other airport with commercial jet traffic already has a CTR and most have easy access to Class A. There are a few airports that have exec. jet traffic in Class G but, as a much smaller country there is much less exec. jet use. Generally speaking, jet traffic and VFR GA are segregated. We simply don't have vast areas of Class E with the wide mixture of traffic that you do. The biggest mid-air risk is GA-GA. If you read (and believe) the airprox reports, the biggest risk to airliners is rogue drone operators.

Most of the GA in UK Class G will not be using a radar service so a transponder is effectively pointless as a collision avoidance instrument. SkyEcho transmit can be used together with Mode C, it's only with Mode S that SkyEcho transmit has to be turned off. There has already been a trial of simultaneous Mode S and SkyEcho transmit involving about a dozen different aircraft. As I recall, only one aircraft with a particular transponder fit had a problem with SkyEcho transmissions interfering with Mode S returns.

I don't see CAP 1391 as ever being a worldwide standard, I see it as an experiment in standalone ADS-B in and out for GA. As another approach, a recent EASA rule change allows GA aircraft to use non-certified GPS as an ADS-B position source, but only with SIL=0.

I have no idea how many SkyEchos have been sold.