JS wrote:
For those in the USA who believe that FLARM is a pile of rubbish and
having expensive, not yet available and and power-hungry technology is
the way to go:
Forget about this useful tool.
Jim

The SeeYou Team code does something FLARM can not do: show you were your
friends are, using your map display, as far as your radio can reach.
Flarm is limited to 2 - 3km.

For another way to show your friends on a map, look at the Garmin Rino
series of two way radio with GPS ($250-$500): push a button, and your
position is indicated on their GPS. It also works over a far greater
distance than FLARM, and allows private communication off the busy 123.3
and .5 frequencies. Distance to 10 miles or more.

And finally, take a look at the Garmin Astro Dog tracker. I don't know
if anyone has used these in a glider, but it looks like it might work,
and it does it's job automatically - no pilot workload. $600 for the
display and one collar, works with up to 10 collars. Buy a unit and give
the collar to your friend, so you know where he is; he does the same for
you. It also works over 7+ mile range on the ground on a dog, certainly
farther in the air, again a greater distance than FLARM.

No, the collar doesn't have a shock device built into it, but that might
be a useful feature for clubs that have problems getting members to
bring the glider back when their time is up!

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

* "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* Sections on Mode S, TPAS, ADS-B, Flarm, more

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