Gavin Goudie wrote in message ...
How about the original Mark One Eyeball - most folk
have two inbuilt units and they provide a damn sure
fire way to avoid a collision.

LOOKOUT!

Gav

Most of the time, the Mk 1 Mod 0 Eyeball works fine - IF you can look
in the direction of the threat. Fine during thermalling (plus you are
easy to see, assuming the other guy is also looking out...). But
during long glides between thermals, you CANNOT SEE the threat running
you down from behind. I would love to have a traffic warning device -
and a transponder - but havn't found anything yet that I can afford
(yet).

Then there is the problem of all the neat gadgets in the cockpit now:
Glide computers, PDA's with moving maps, handheld GPS's. Real easy to
spend way too much time heads down; so the admonition to LOOKOUT! is
still absolutely valid!

I guess a lot depends on where, what, and how you fly. Hanging around
the gliderport in the house thermal, the biggest threat is the student
in the same thermal staring at his variometer. Flying XC in the
western US (or Oz, etc) my biggest fear is some doctor in his Baron
hitting me from behind. Of course, as long as I keep my cruise speed
up, I can eliminate the threat from most Cessnas and Pipers!

Kirk
LS6-b "66"