Dan Russell wrote:
Would the lack of a transponder
beacon mark Flight 77 for AWACS over Kentucky, without external
identifying communication, or just mark it for a Radar Approach Control
system? What was tracking that plane when it turned the transponder
off?
I had occasion to fly into the Washington-Virginia airport more years ago
than I wish to remember (about 1968). I was flying a cherokee six
that was not fully IFR rated. The only piece of equipment missing
was the transponder. I was warned before we departed Brunswick, Georgia,
that my intended destination had a restricted air space surrounding the
whole area around Washington, D.C. I was informed that I would be
required to check in with air traffic control before penetrating the restricted
air space. "Failure to check in could result in your being shot down",
the air park operator warned.
As an aside, I received the same warning about penetrating the ADIZ
without checking with ATC and on one occasion, leaving the US airspace
to fly to key West, we miscalculated. We were not shot down, but
we did have have a pair of F8U's escort us to the Key West Airport.
Those planes were scrambled from Key West and intercepted us within 10
miles of the ADIZ.
Back to the story. When we got to within 5 miles of the Restricted
air space in Washington, we reported in to ATC our intentions of landing
at the Washington-Virginia Airport. The ATC controller instructed
us to "squawk" a code on the transponder so he could identify us.
When informed that we did not have a transponder, he required us to make
a series of turns and to descend to a particular altitude for identification
purposes. Once the required turns were made and we were at the assigned
altitude, he said he had us identified and asked us of our destination.
We told him where we wanted to land and he assigned the heading and altitude
for us. The point is we were not allowed to fly in this controlled
airspace without ATC having control of heading and altitude. If we
had failed to check in prior to penetrating that restricted air space,
we would have had an escort within minutes.
To finish the story, he vectored us to the airport. I don't mean
he got us to the airport. When he said the airport was 8 miles straight
ahead to call the tower for landing instructions, we were lined up on final.
We called the tower requesting a straight in approach and permission was
granted instantly with a "...we were expecting you."
Jim Norman
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