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OK, I retract my statement. I'm never one to suggest replacing a wife. But I think you set us up on this one.

I can imagine it...

You're flying about 5500 feet one day when the door accidentally pops open. The door panel hangs up on the lower door sill and all of those gum wrappers come falling out. ATC would momentarily see the size of your primary target triple in size as the radar reflects off of the aluminum gum wrappers. Not to mention, it'd probably scare the bejeezus out of your wife.

Then, as your transponder target walks away from the primary target, they'd definitely be down there scratching their heads.....

Wayne, I sent that ashtray out in today's mail. It's coming from CA so we'll see how long it takes the USPS to get it to you.

I've always wondered about Center and Approach radar capabilities. My ground school instructor told the class the other day something that was quite shocking to me. He said that Center and Approach radar has very little ability to see aircraft without a transponder and that if you fly with your transponder off, you are more or less invisible to them because their radar is not the sophisticated type that the military uses to detect bad guys. . . . does this sound true ?

Depends on the facility, I suppose. I've been in the Tampa TRACON and I saw the cars on the bay bridges on the radar scope.

Yep. Depending on the facility. When I was leaving Omaha a few years back, Departure warned me "There are multiple targets at your 2 o'clock. Probably birds".

Skydive Chicago was doing some big-way skydives a few years ago. They invited a few TRACON guys down to watch so they could see in person what they were watching on their scopes.

Yup, the skydiving formation got so big they could pick up the blot.