Hot Pursuit
Image by Drew Beamer/Unsplash
A pilot busts through Class D airspace. No words exchanged; no permission granted and thankfully, no safety issues arose from the incident.
This happens as I’m practicing a less-than-stellar hold at 3,000 feet. A call from New York approach control notifies me of VFR traffic closing in from my left, 500 feet below. I made visual contact with the airplane – I *think* a stunningly vintage Cessna 190 or 195 – and was then informed of its offense and asked if I could get a tail number.
I’m a team player and want to do what I can to help so I broke from the hold and safely began hot pursuit of the Cessna. Despite my efforts, I couldn’t get the registration. The MFD (Multi-Function Display) only displayed its target and the relative vertical distance but nothing more. I then checked my iPad and there was the N-number. I had ForeFlight connected to the Garmin panel and yet was only able to get the N-number on the iPad.
Does anyone know why that is? ATC doesn’t have the N-number. The airplane has both ADS-B In and Out yet the registration was not displayed on the MFD. Does it require a simple setting in the Garmin to display such information? The amount of air traffic in the New York skies guarantees too much clutter on the screen so maybe it’s a matter of a de-clutter setting? Forgive me, but I’m fairly new to the Cirrus and the Perspective+ system. My question is mainly why my iPad has that detail but ATC does not? If that plane is ADS-B equipped (which it should have been per the mandate and the local airspace requirements) I would think that ATC would be able to obtain what information that they needed.
