On Wednesday, 18 November 2020 at 21:14:01 UTC, Moshe Braner wrote:
On 11/18/2020 10:57 AM, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Martin Gregorie wrote on 11/18/2020 6:27 AM:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2020 05:24:27 -0800, Me wrote:
On Monday, November 16, 2020 at 10:03:10 PM UTC-6, Gregg Ballou wrote:
Have there been any glider mid airs in the last few years where the
gliders didn't have Flarm?
There's also a lot more car crashes with seat belts these days.
Seat belts don't warn the driver of possible car crashes - they only make
them more survivable.
FLARM is not remotely equivalent to a seat-belt.
Seat belts - and Flarm - make their respective activities (driving and
flying) more survivable, though by different means. In aircraft, seat
belts often have expiry dates, and need "firmware" updates. So, I think
they are equivalent in the sense they are both safety devices.
Very very different:
Old seat belts don't self-destruct on a schedule (although they do
weaken with age). If somebody doesn't replace them on time they still
help as best as they can. I wish FLARM would do the same with old firmware.
But more importantly, as noted above, FLARM is a preventative device,
not a survivability aid like seatbelts. It is more like the gizmos some
cars have now that warn you about getting too close to something behind
you when you back up. I'm sure those get software updates sometimes,
but I don't expect they stop working just because the software is old.
You buy anything, you have to know how it works. It is made very clear by Flarm what the update policy has been since 2015, which is to allow for developments to be introduced without every update having to be compatible with every other very old version that other people haven't bothered to update. See:
https://flarm.com/support/firmware-updates/
https://support.flarm.com/hc/en-us/a...piration-date-
Each major update actually is valid for longer than a year from its release so that at any time during the life of that update different owners can begin their annual free update cycle. In EASA land it should be formally included in the glider AMP (annual maintenance program). If an owner can't manage doing that or getting it done for him what else is he not capable of?