Stupid transponder question, or, stumped by the wife

So we were watching "Seconds From Disaster" on NGC last night, which
happened to be on AA 77. When they mentioned that seconds after gaining
control of the aircraft the hijackers turned off the transponder (along with
a brief explanation of what the transponder does), my wife simply says:

"That's stupid, why does something like that even have an on/off switch?"

I honestly never thought about it and couldn't answer her question. Does
anyone know?

Regards,

John K.

Can you picture the radar screen in Boston/New York/Chicago/LAX when all the
planes on the ground are showing up? The radar sweeps by and shows 23 planes
lines up for the departure runway, superimposed on whoever is flying
overhead.



"John Kirksey" wrote in message
news:_0YVe.24770$8h6.7135@trnddc09...
So we were watching "Seconds From Disaster" on NGC last night, which
happened to be on AA 77. When they mentioned that seconds after gaining
control of the aircraft the hijackers turned off the transponder (along
with
a brief explanation of what the transponder does), my wife simply says:

"That's stupid, why does something like that even have an on/off switch?"

I honestly never thought about it and couldn't answer her question. Does
anyone know?

Regards,

John K.

Or what Chicago center sees in east central Wisconsin the last week of
July, first week of August.....

Only 10.5 months until the next bash!

When diagnosing electrical problems, it's helpful to be able to
selectively turn things off.

When I'm downloading data from my EDM, I turn all the radio gear off to
avoid unnecessary battery drain.

On Wed, 14 Sep 2005 16:15:54 GMT, "John Kirksey"
wrote:

So we were watching "Seconds From Disaster" on NGC last night, which
happened to be on AA 77. When they mentioned that seconds after gaining
control of the aircraft the hijackers turned off the transponder (along with
a brief explanation of what the transponder does), my wife simply says:

"That's stupid, why does something like that even have an on/off switch?"

I honestly never thought about it and couldn't answer her question. Does
anyone know?

Regards,

John K.



You need the ability to turn off the xponder inflight. One day I was
flying along and ATC called and asked me if anything was wrong. I said
everything is fine, why do you ask? They told me my xponder was
transmitting 7700. I looked at the xponder and confirmed that was NOT
what I have set - they said please turn it off - so I did.

When I'm on the ground, I set my xponder to standby, not off.

Ralph

wrote:
You need the ability to turn off the xponder inflight. One day I was
flying along and ATC called and asked me if anything was wrong. I said
everything is fine, why do you ask? They told me my xponder was
transmitting 7700. I looked at the xponder and confirmed that was NOT
what I have set - they said please turn it off - so I did.

When I'm on the ground, I set my xponder to standby, not off.


One other possible scenario: what if the transponder develops a short? Unless
you have a dedicated circuit breaker, you've got to have a way to take it our of
the loop.... otherwise it's fly around without ANY electrical device (turn off
the master).

Every electric device needs an on-off switch.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE

In military formation flying, only 1 plane has a transponder turned on.

"John Kirksey" wrote in message
news:_0YVe.24770$8h6.7135@trnddc09...
So we were watching "Seconds From Disaster" on NGC last night, which
happened to be on AA 77. When they mentioned that seconds after
gaining
control of the aircraft the hijackers turned off the transponder
(along with
a brief explanation of what the transponder does), my wife simply
says:

"That's stupid, why does something like that even have an on/off
switch?"

I honestly never thought about it and couldn't answer her question.
Does
anyone know?

Regards,

John K.

sfb wrote:

In military formation flying, only 1 plane has a transponder turned on.

Isn't this true with GA formation flying as well?

--
Peter
























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On Wed, 14 Sep 2005 10:36:16 -0700, wrote:

On Wed, 14 Sep 2005 16:15:54 GMT, "John Kirksey"
wrote:


When I'm on the ground, I set my xponder to standby, not off.

I've often wished my transponder had a standby position. It's either
on or off. And when I turn it off, it forgets the squawk code and I
have to reset it. It's a bit of a pain.

RK Henry

"That's stupid, why does something like that even have an on/off
switch?"

For the very reason many men wished thier wives had one.