Narrative:

Working local 1 position at dab runway 7L. Local 2 open and working several aircraft in VFR traffic pattern on parallel runway 7R. I depart the air carrier from 7L on runway heading climbing to five thousand. Local 2 has small aircraft 1/2 mile off the departure end of 7R. When the air carrier rotates he climbs quickly over the small aircraft. At this time the aircraft are side by side but with the air carrier higher. Separation not lost and no rules broken. Pilot tells departure he had a TCAS RA with aircraft in pattern. This event occurs many times daily at our airport with our volume of air carrier and training aircraft. Recently our staff agreed to a request from a based training school to allow their pattern aircraft to squawk 1200 with no altitude. This causes clutter on the tower and TRACON scopes. In this scenario; a pilot received a TCAS RA for traffic that was no factor. Had he taken evasive action for no reason; he might have turned or climbed into another aircraft causing a collision or near hit. I don't see how letting a flight school have its way with training aircraft can possibly be more important than risking the lives of a hundred passengers. Even the smallest; minute possibility of this happening is unacceptable. It is an unsafe procedure and a great waste of time and taxpayer money to have high salaried supervisor conducting an investigation by making phone calls to region; listening to tapes and filing reports over nothing. This procedure should be terminated immediately. There is no requirement for VFR pattern aircraft to have transponders on while in pattern.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: DAB controller described TCAS RA event involving parallel runway departures; claiming local procedure regarding transponder usage in the pattern was contributory to the TCAS RA.

Narrative: Working local 1 position at DAB Runway 7L. Local 2 open and working several aircraft in VFR traffic pattern on parallel Runway 7R. I depart the Air Carrier from 7L on runway heading climbing to five thousand. Local 2 has small aircraft 1/2 mile off the departure end of 7R. When the Air Carrier rotates he climbs quickly over the small aircraft. At this time the aircraft are side by side but with the Air Carrier higher. Separation not lost and no rules broken. Pilot tells departure he had a TCAS RA with aircraft in pattern. This event occurs many times daily at our airport with our volume of air carrier and training aircraft. Recently our staff agreed to a request from a based training school to allow their pattern aircraft to Squawk 1200 with no altitude. This causes clutter on the Tower and TRACON scopes. In this scenario; a pilot received a TCAS RA for traffic that was no factor. Had he taken evasive action for no reason; he might have turned or climbed into another aircraft causing a collision or near hit. I don't see how letting a flight school have its way with training aircraft can possibly be more important than risking the lives of a hundred passengers. Even the smallest; minute possibility of this happening is unacceptable. It is an unsafe procedure and a great waste of time and taxpayer money to have high salaried supervisor conducting an investigation by making phone calls to region; listening to tapes and filing reports over nothing. This procedure should be terminated immediately. There is no requirement for VFR pattern aircraft to have transponders on while in pattern.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.