At 10:36 22 July 2009, Mike Schumann wrote:
FLARM is a major distraction in the US for people who are concerned about
collision avoidance. Unlike Europe, the biggest threat to gliders in the
US is other VFR or IFR traffic. If you want to upgrade your glider to
minimize these threats, you need to use a technology that is compatible
with the US
ATC system; either conventional transponders and/or PCAS systems or
hopefully in the not too distant future ADS-B.

Mike Schumann

Experiences certainly vary. I have had four close calls. ALL with other
gliders. Two with the same plane. Two were in thermals (one, my bad
entry, the other, someone elses less than optimum entry), the other two
were head on, 2000 feet or more below cloudbase. I was westbound on both
of the near head-ons. And they were both less than 20 feet off of direct
head-on, and less than 100 feet vertical as we passed after push or pull
to avoid. The good news is, the second person saw the first to respond
and responded in the opposite direction. First time, I saw him above me
and I pushed. The second time, I saw his wings bending down, so I pulled.
These were two years apart and both at National soaring contests.

Yes, FLARM doesn't talk to transponders. But for the flying I do most, I
need to know about gliders more than I need to know about powered traffic.
So, I would rather have a FLARM and work to getting my friends to have them
too. I can move a FLARM around in my fleet much easier than I can move a
transponder, encoder, and PCAS. And I can do it legally without having to
get the installation recertified every time I go to fly a new plane.

And if you look at the mid-airs involving gliders, most are glider to
glider. There are a few glider and towplane, several glider-jet ones
(LS-4 and A7, F4 and 2-32, and of course, ASG-29 and Hawker). Not to say
there haven't been many close calls (they aren't "near misses" as
everyone talks about. They are "near hits".)

Get what you want, but try to keep your eyes outside!

Steve Leonard