Sandro schrieb:
Hallo,

In Holland it looks like they are going to make Transponders mode S obligatory
on all sailplanes, starting mid 2008 (the starting date has been postponed a
couple of times already but it looks like it is really going to happen, sooner
or later).

I was wondering what is the situation in other countries (I am particularly
interested in Germany, France, Switzerland,Austria).


Hi Sandro,

here is a short german text about the sitation germany:
http://www.daec.de/te/transponder.php (german).

To make a long story short:
From 31th march 2008 (for new aircrafts the date was 31. march 2005)
all VFR-Flights need to have a mode S transponder in following airspaces:

- Class C and D. (A and B don't exists in germany)
- Transponder Mandatory Zone – TMZ
- in controlled Airspace (this includes also E) during night flights
- motor-powered aircrafts, excepts their current operation mode is
soaring, in heights about 5000 ft above seelevel and 3500 ft GND.


I know in Germany there are TMZ (transponder mandatory zones) already, but I
have no idea if at some point all gliders will be expected to have a
transponder. (BTW, is it possible to find an online summary of these TMZ without
having to give my mobile phone number to the Deutsche Flugsicherung?).

I don't know an online summary, but you can see them on the ICAO charts.
Most of them are in the very western parts of germany.

Andreas



Any comment is welcome,

Sandro