Don Johnstone wrote:
Reality check - 3000 units worldwide out of how many
gliders and light aircraft?

It is not fitted world-wide: it is fitted where there is a serious
problem that it can mitigate.

Hardly something I would
call universal.

No one claimed it was universal. I claim 3000 units (and growing) in
areas of high glider density is a grand success story.

Two european countries,

Come on, Don! At least check out FLARM.com, where you will see it is
being sold in EIGHT European countries!

half the antipodes,
and parts of the USA

Nowhere is it in use in the USA. In fact, FLARM refuses to sell it to
the USA.

does not in my opinion equate
to most of the world either.

And we all agree with that.

Fitting the unit is my glider right now would be stupid

Yes! Don, FLARM is not about you and your personal situation. Try to
understand why it was initiated by glider pilots in Europe, and in three
or so years delivered 3000 units!

and if the straw poll I have conducted over the past
couple of days is anything to go by will remain so.
I have yet to speak to a pilot who has any intention
of fitting an (relatively) expensive piece of kit
which may or may not be useful in the distant future.
Certainly according to Tim no-one in the UK has shown
an interest as yet.

If I thought for one moment that FLARM improved safety
I would be the first to support it.

It does improve safety in Europe. If you flew in the Alps and other high
density areas, you would find yourself quite interested in
renting/borrowing one while you where there. I support the concept, and
I live in the USA, where they refuse to sell FLARM. You can support
FLARM without using one.

At best right now
it is ineffective at worst it distracts attention away
from a more practical way of solving the problem, an
irrelevance.

A strong opinion from someone who has not ever flown with a FLARM, and
especially not in Europe! Or, apparently, even read any of the history
of the device.


--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA

www.motorglider.org - Download "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane
Operation"