With all of the Next Gen hype, ADSB, TIS, FIS, Mode-S, etc.....
I was contemplating the purchase of a new Trig Transponder so I could take advantage of the traffic capabilities over the summer flying season. Then I started to remember that we are supposed to set our transponders to standby when flying in to Oshkosh - precisely the place that something like in flight traffic would be the most useful! Is there a good reason to turn our transponders off? I know that the purpose was to keep from overwhelming controllers, but they have some pretty cool hardware these days to help them out. Besides, I'm VFR and I'd rather have in cockpit traffic (even with it's shortcomings) that might possibly save my bacon. The controllers can filter out the 1200 squawks, so how could it hurt for us to leave our transponders on?
I was contemplating the purchase of a new Trig Transponder so I could take advantage of the traffic capabilities over the summer flying season. Then I started to remember that we are supposed to set our transponders to standby when flying in to Oshkosh - precisely the place that something like in flight traffic would be the most useful! Is there a good reason to turn our transponders off? I know that the purpose was to keep from overwhelming controllers, but they have some pretty cool hardware these days to help them out. Besides, I'm VFR and I'd rather have in cockpit traffic (even with it's shortcomings) that might possibly save my bacon. The controllers can filter out the 1200 squawks, so how could it hurt for us to leave our transponders on?