On Tuesday, September 26, 2017 at 2:06:33 PM UTC-7, John Cochrane wrote:

Still, what was a O'hare bound jet doing that low, in class E airspace, that far out? Airline pilots, is this a common route and practice? It would seem that staying above 10,000' until quite near the massive Ohare Class B would be prudent!

Likely flying a "standard approach" (STAR) into O'Hare. It is really important we don't think fast jets and airliners are only found in Class A, B and C airspace.

Maybe a useful reminder that the midair collision of the ASG29 and Hawker 800 happened around 30 nautical miles from the edge of Reno Class C Airspace.. Out if good old Class E. The Hawker 800 had just left Class A, and was contacting Reno Approach and would have been talking a Mustang VOR route into Reno.

"Oh sure but that's a private jet, an airliner on the other hand..." Bzzzt no. Just an example in that area airliners landing flying approaches into Reno often fly under gliders flying out of the Truckee area. All in Class E airspace.

I wanted to mention Reno again because it's the poster child for transponder use (and I'm always been impressed with most pilot attitudes and PASCO efforts etc. to encourage transponder use there), but many other locations also have traffic issues where pilots likely should be using transponders, and I'd hate for pilots to not think that through carefully and only assume the problem exists at Reno.