Leaky Float wrote:NDB- I am fully aware that I am going to get pummeled for sticking up for you, however I feel obligated to do so. Some have been asking what you are doing to be so skiddish. What the answer to that is I haven't a clue.
I do however know my own behaviors rather well and there are times that I don't want ANYONE knowing where I am, or those to whome I am with. Why might one want the whole damn world knowing where you are every moment of your life? I charish deeply not only my own personal security, privacy, BUT the general safety of aviation as well. And once again, flying without a transponder (on or not having one) does not mean that you (we) are a danger to the public.
I gotta say that I'm split on this decision. I think what Leaky Float is getting at is in some situations, you're not decreasing safety by turning off the mode C, you are only covering your own arse.
For 99% of the flying that I've done, I've kept the mode c on. I think if ndb is talking about flying up the Fraser Valley at 3,000 feet while dodging control zones, then yes he is worthy of every bad word directed his way. I mean to turn off your mode C while doing that, is the result of a minor anorism or some sort of mental meltdown.
On the other hand, there is that 1% of flying where turning off the mode C is probably a wise decision. I can relate to a time when I myself did this down south along the rim of the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon has a bunch of environmental or other sorts of protected zones all along the rim. Flight into the canyon itself is restricted and there are special charts that are published to try and guide confused tourists along their way. Well reading the charts and trying to decipher exactly where you are from 100 AGL is a little bit difficult to do. After about 50 bends, everything starts to appear the same. In this case we simply leaned over and flicked off the mode C. That way if we did happen to blow through some environmental zone, we wouldn't have the FAA screaming at us. In this situation I can't see how turning off the mode C would have created any sort of increase in danger for ourselves or those around us. If there are any planes with Tcas at 100 AGL, I think they have bigger problems to deal with.
I know that ndb isn't boosting his ratings right now but why don't we let him tell us where he is doing this before we right him off as mentally deranged.
We have no effective screening methods to make sure pilots are sane.
— Dr. Herbert Haynes, Federal Aviation Authority.