No matter if it worked or not… this
I had once Munich Radar complaining that they could not see my mode S and asked me to take action
is once again evidence of a complete overreaction by the german ATC (since you quote 6500 feet, OCAS actually FL65 in Germany, I assume you were VFR and talking to FIS). They apply the regs by the letter without any common sense it seems. My appreciation of the german FIS is shrinking day by day…
If you were in class D or C (and thus talking to Radar) then my sympathy for that action is only marginally higher.
I’d say also Munich and Langen can read and display mode S, otherwise it would be difficult for them to identify any airplane flying with the 7000 Squawk by registration, which is what they regularly do. I got “identified” quite a few times even from their FIS but also from Munich Radar while flying in their airspace and rarely had to put a Mode A/C Squawk in.
I visited Düsseldorf’s radar room in the days before Langen and dcertainly before Mode S, probably 20 years ago. Even then, the controller simply selected the 7000 return on the screen and tagged it with a particular label, usually the callsign. From then on, it appeared with the label instead of 7000
Munich certainly reads Mode S as I had them question a selected alt once – they were in fact wrong.
I’d say also Munich and Langen can read and display mode S,…
Sure they can, as well as Zürich (Skyguide) who is in charge of Friedrichshafen airspace. More and more often we get “squawk 1000” from off-block to on-block which means every controller involved, including GROUND, can display the flight number from the mode S return and does not need the A/C four digit code. If you want to know if a station identifies you by mode S, just set a different tailnumber in your transponder (we fly with flight numbers, both at work and in the flying school, so setting the correct number is easily forgotten) and wait until someone notices. It ususally takes less than two minutes. Mode S has been around for a decade, it’s really not something being forced upon people overnight.
The OP is probably from the south or south east, and Mode S is more or less just a N European gravy train, which is probably why he doesn’t have Mode S. In the UK it was a “war” too… but actually 8.33 is going to cost people more than Mode S ever did.
Toying with idea of flying the Aerostar over late summer, but don’t have mode S and don’t want to install it as the plane is for sale.
Holland, if higher than 1200 AMSL.
NB “flying over”: from where to where, more or less? Another Atlantic crossing?
Atlantic crossing, yes. I would visit Sweden, UK and probably Spain if I did. Holland is kind of hard to avoid between Sweden and UK – do they give exemptions?
With a twin, I would definitely do the route Aberdeen – Stavanger for the fun of it.
That said, if you want to fly IFR, in controllled airspace, I guess you will need Mode-S in most countries in Europe nowadays. But yes, these things are quite hard to research.
It would be IFR for pretty much all of it. So other countries have mode S req’s for IFR as well?