Transponder

[tonycondon]

I bought a transponder a few weeks ago, a Microair T2000SFL. Since I didn't have to go to work this week thanks to tornado damage I was able to spend a bunch of time working on installing it. It's down there on the bottom right below the panel. Tomorrow morning I take it over to the avionics shop to get the certification done on it.

 

[Greg Bockelman]

Does it have an encoder?

 

[tonycondon]

yes i have an ACK encoder installed behind the panel.

 

[Greg Bockelman]

Cool.

 

[1200AGL]

I bought a transponder a few weeks ago, a Microair T2000SFL.

Cool! That's a good thing to have. At Potomac TRACON's open house last fall, they asked all of the glider pilots to stay behind and proceeded to play a scope trace from a near-midair over FDK between a glider thermalling at ~4,000 feet and a regional jet going 250 kt on approach to Dulles. With no transponder, the glider painted only an intermittent primary RADAR target and the controller was lucky to have seen it.

My club installed a Trig TT21 transponder in the ASK-21 over the winter. It was wild to see the altitude encoder read FL230 in the wave window last month.

 

[tonycondon]

i got up close and personal with a Citation last summer. One of the gliderports in the area is pretty close to the Class C and on the northeast side of town in the middle of a high concentration of airports. Power draw shouldn't be too bad and I think it will be a good thing to have.

 

[BillTIZ]

Adding a transponder is a great idea. I'm working to get them installed on our club gliders.
You only have to look at a 737 face to face once to convince you.

Just remember, you'll show up for the birds with TCAS, you'll show up on ATC radar if they have coverage at your altitude. But it won't help against that VFR FDH bug smasher not talking to ATC. Still need to keep the Mk-1 eyeballs peeled.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

Pretty install, Tony.

 

[tonycondon]

thanks Dave, the instrument panel does a nice job of hiding the rats nest of tubes and wires behind it.

 

[Captain]

Now all ya need is TCAS, GPWS, GPS, AHRS, RA, PFD, MFD, and FMS.


; )

 

[tonycondon]

inspection complete this morning. only took money.

 

[wanttaja]

Just got done re-installing the Microair Transponder on my Fly Baby:

Part of a rebuild that took all the electrical system items from a box mounted on the floorboards between the pilot's legs and put them in the main panel. The wood panel on the floor covers the spot where the avionics box used to be. Also added a master solenoid; as this plane was originally constructed, you had to remove the radios (with live power) to disconnect the battery....

You'll notice that the transponder is mounted on a kind of "bump out" from the panel. As part of the process, I built a wood mockup of the transponder, dubbed the "Mapleair," to examine fit issues. The mockup showed that the transponder itself would fit without the "bump-out", but there wasn't enough clearance behind for the data/power connector and the antenna connector.

Ron Wanttaja

 

[tonycondon]

haha the Mapleair, i love it. Space was part of the reason I didn't put the transponder in the panel, not only space in the panel to cut the hole but lack of space behind the panel. Even down in that corner it was pretty tight as the cockpit narrows towards the front and there is a capacity flask in the way but we made it work.