Dav8or
Final Approach
There are lots of NORDO planes, nearly everybody else has Mode C and more and more are getting Mode S, but are there any of us out there still buzzing around with Mode A?
Does anyone still fly with a Mode A transponder?
- Thread starter Dav8or
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Neal Howard
Cleared for Takeoff
Most Mode-A-only transponders that were ever sold probably had their cavity tubes wear out and were scrapped aeons ago.
Yeah, most, but I bet there's still a couple out there.
I don't know if there are any viable MODE A ONLY transponders out there, those probably also only have 64 codes rather than 4096. THere's really nothing magic about the transponder being able to respond to mode C interrogations other than it has to have an encoder connected to it. Back when I learned to fly in 1981, all our aircraft had mode A/C transponders, but none of them had encoders (DEN was only a Group II TCA at the time)
Ghery
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Ghery Pettit
I've been asked to turn off Mode C when the encoder wasn't reflecting my true altitude. In essence I was using Mode A for that flight. So, "yes", it happens now and then. Now, the box was not pure Mode A, but... 
JoeSelch
Pattern Altitude
Not a Mode A-only transponder, but I was flying Mode A without an encoder for several months after buying my current plane. Builder didn't need no steenkin Mode C...