Transponder Cert Going to Expire

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RonP

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My transponder certification expires at the end of March. The airplane is a VFR Cherokee 140 and I have to take it to another airport for the certification. My home base is inside a mode C veil and the destination airport is not. Where I live all the weekends in March so far have been wind gusting 20+mph or rain. I hate to take a day off from work but may have to unless there is a way to legally fly with a transponder out of certification.
 
Greg,

By controlling facility do you mean the Class B that owns the mode C veil?
 
I have done what Greg suggested in the past and it worked out just fine.

At first they were slightly confused why I was calling. Then the supervisor on duty, who was a pilot, got on the line.

After I explained to him what was what and what I wanted, he grok’ed it and said he would be watching and listening behind the controller who we would be talking to and go ahead and launch.
 
RonP said:
Greg,

By controlling facility do you mean the Class B that owns the mode C veil?
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The TRACON/Approach/Departure who covers the space.

Look in the A/FD entry for you airport and you’ll find the phone number.
 
Assuming this aircraft has ADS-B, 91.225 should also be consulted.
 
Sounds easy to do. Although my transponder is working (as far as I know) it is not certified after March 31. Seems explaining this to ATC will either be “don’t worry about it” or ATC will give me a window to fly under their Mode C veil. Great info and the more I think about it there had to be some way to fly the airplane to a repair center if the transponder was totally dead. Thanks
 
since you operate under the veil, i assume you have adsb. then this requires two waivers. one for the transonder and one for the inop adsb. the procedure for requesting the adsb waiver is more complicated than the request for the transponder.
 
I was recently in the same boat. Call around and see if anyone does house calls for VFR certs. I got mine done right on the ramp. Easier than trailering the aircraft in order to comply with 91.413 :rolleyes:
 
unsafervguy said:
since you operate under the veil, i assume you have adsb. then this requires two waivers. one for the transonder and one for the inop adsb. the procedure for requesting the adsb waiver is more complicated than the request for the transponder.
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Explain.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Explain.
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Despite the requirement to have ADSB out in airspace that requires a mode C transponder, the rules are separate. Not only would you need to get approval to not have a mode c transponder, you’d also need to get approval to not have ADSB, which requires a different approval process.
 
Or just call them up and let them know. I know it's not *as* safe as increasing ATC workload by inop'ing otherwise functioning surveillance equipment, but rules are rules...
 
A XPDR working great, ADS-B working great, out of date by only a couple days -- and only because you wanted to make good decisions and not fly in poor weather? Not a safety issue... I think I'll take forgiveness or permission.

Then again, knowing the FAA...
upload_2023-3-26_14-26-13.png
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
A XPDR working great, ADS-B working great, out of date by only a couple days -- and only because you wanted to make good decisions and not fly in poor weather? Not a safety issue... I think I'll take forgiveness or permission.

Then again, knowing the FAA...
View attachment 116065
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Well done sir, I salute a fellow meme lord. It's the Lord's work. Salud! :cheerswine:
 
mondtster said:
Despite the requirement to have ADSB out in airspace that requires a mode C transponder, the rules are separate. Not only would you need to get approval to not have a mode c transponder, you’d also need to get approval to not have ADSB, which requires a different approval process.
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I don’t see why one call to the controlling facility would not cover both.
 
The OP never said his adsb-out transmitter is kaput.
 
the transponder isn't out, it's just expired.
 
hindsight2020 said:
The OP never said his adsb-out transmitter is kaput.
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That was my thinking also. ADSB does need a transponder to function and his is working, it's just out of time on the certification.
 
Gotta love it when people put themselves against a deadline. You could hire a local commercial (CFI) to move it by the end of the month.
 
FPK1 said:
Does an expired transponder stop working or send a flag it's expired?
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No. Some people simply prefer to follow the rules which doesnt permit the use of an expired transponder 91.413 inspection in certain air space. It falls to the owner to track this.
 
the altimeter certification part of the IFR inspection/certification of the aircraft and hence only required for IFR in controlled airspace?
generally your modeC would report pressure altitude (or encoding if there is a separate input), ATC would offset the received altitude with the current barometric pressure to determine your actual altitude. so really the only "trouble" you'd have is that if your pressure altitude is so off that with today's barometric you'd be perceived in say class B shelf.

that transponder doesn't have a watch and your altitude would not start reporting crazy at expiration date, it would have done that before, and if so, you'd have had situations/questions already from ATC (such as stay below 2000 or so).

you can always take a adsb receiver (as simple as an antenna, raspberry pi and bring it your airfield to see what your airplane is reporting for altitude (should be close to field elevation), so you can be safe to move the plane knowing that it is reporting within bounds.

if you want to be compliant and safe about it, a call as suggested should do it, you could technically even ask it in the air, but it is hard(er) to have a dialogue/discussion obviously then.
 
FPK1 said:
Does an expired transponder stop working or send a flag it's expired?
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No, but if you have a mishap, the FAA has been known to compare aircraft logs and pilot logs and violate people for doing things like this.
 
So, like, a friend goofed up and went a couple months past the transponder check due date. The tech asked how long out of date it was, and commented that it wasn't a huge deal, he had just done one that was 7 years out of date.
 
Doug Reid said:
I wish all my problems were this simple :).
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Oh for sure, take this place with a grain of salt. It's a self-selection bias. It dawned on me a while ago as my years of aircraft ownership started collecting in earnest, that online forums attract an outsized amount of the persnickety within an avocation. Whereas when you go there out in the wild, you see a lot more "water-line", gravity driven behavior. To which I mean, the more pragmatic, middle of the road, often expedient and common experience, even if it routinely violates all these technocratic nothingburgers the usual suspects love to make mountains out of, complete with slippery slope litanies and general finger wagging. In a way, POA needs that silly banter, otherwise this place would be as deadpan as a type-specific forum.

Yes, the debate is banal to a fault. But it's either that or watch cat pics on insta (they're adorbs btw) that the wife forwards me, and when I don't reply she grabs my phone to see if I got it and well, goes down the rabbit hole that is my insta search history-driven recommendations. Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to, lady lol. As @kayoh190 said on another thread, nuking it from space is the only way to be safe. :D


Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
So, like, a friend goofed up and went a couple months past the transponder check due date. The tech asked how long out of date it was, and commented that it wasn't a huge deal, he had just done one that was 7 years out of date.
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Eggzactly. Alas, cue the "normalization of deviance" tar and feathering in 3....
greta-how-dare-you.gif

:D
 
hindsight2020 said:
Oh for sure, take this place with a grain of salt. It's a self-selection bias. It dawned on me a while ago as my years of aircraft ownership started collecting in earnest, that online forums attract an outsized amount of the persnickety within an avocation. Whereas when you go there out in the wild, you see a lot more "water-line", gravity driven behavior. To which I mean, the more pragmatic, middle of the road, often expedient and common experience, even if it routinely violates all these technocratic nothingburgers the usual suspects love to make mountains out of, complete with slippery slope litanies and general finger wagging. In a way, POA needs that silly banter, otherwise this place would be as deadpan as a type-specific forum.

Yes, the debate is banal to a fault. But it's either that or watch cat pics on insta (they're adorbs btw) that the wife forwards me, and when I don't reply she grabs my phone to see if I got it and well, goes down the rabbit hole that is my insta search history-driven recommendations. Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to, lady lol. As @kayoh190 said on another thread, nuking it from space is the only way to be safe. :D




Eggzactly. Alas, cue the "normalization of deviance" tar and feathering in 3....
greta-how-dare-you.gif

:D
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You may choose to violate regulations. I may choose to violate regulations. But only one of us chooses to announce to the public that he would do it. ;)
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
So, like, a friend goofed up and went a couple months past the transponder check due date. The tech asked how long out of date it was, and commented that it wasn't a huge deal, he had just done one that was 7 years out of date.
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I’ve seen some that were well over a decade past due. It’s not an uncommon occurrence out here in the sticks, where the amount of airspace requiring a transponder is minimal.

But, one of the guys that I know who doesn’t keep track of their inspections well was in trouble over their lack of transponder cert when they got a pilot deviation. I think the outcome of the deviation would have been different if they would have taken their responsibilities as an aircraft owner a bit more serious.

It would be nice if mechanics holding an IA would be allowed to perform transponder and static system checks, provided they had adequate tooling to do so. I think these inspections would be ignored less frequently if there were more options for compliance.
 
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This is the OP. Problem solved! My cousin 2 hours away took pity on me. He picked up a buddy, flew the 2 of them in his 1958 Champ to my airport. Then his buddy, a CFI, flew the Cherokee north where the annual and xpndr will be will be done. My cousin met him there and they both flew back home in his Champ. Many great responses and lessons learned. Now the annual and biennial on the transponder will be in April where the weather will settle down for a better window to get the Cherokee north for both next time.
 
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