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Home > Collision Avoidance Systems
Collision
Avoidance Systems
Links
Becker | Zaon Flight Systems
Overview
Safety is a very important consideration for all glider pilots.
There are several approaches to collision avoidance that are commonly used
in sailplanes.
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Transponders - When
queried by air traffic control they transmit the aircraft's altitude and
other parameters. That data, along with positional data from the
radar, can be used to route traffic around you. Transponders
greatly enhance safety in congested areas. Also, most large
aircraft are equipped with TCAS which, independent of any ground inputs,
performs surveillance of nearby aircraft to provide information on the
position and altitude of these aircraft so the collision avoidance
algorithms can perform their function.
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Collision Avoidance
Systems - These are passive systems that listen to data transmitted
by nearby aircraft transponders. Nearby transponder-equipped
aircraft are detected and ranged, and the altitude is decoded. The
range, relative altitude and (for some units) direction of the nearest
traffic is displayed and an alert is sounded when the range and relative
altitude are less than preset minimum values. Some systems provide
direction information so the pilot knows where to look for the traffic.
These systems can be very small and much lower cost than a transponder.
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