On 7/27/11 5:56 PM, Jim Logajan wrote:
Darryl wrote:
[snip]

You disagree on current USA airliner 1090ES data-out carriage? - or do
you know if the airline traffic you are worried about have significant
1090ES data-out carriage?(its great to know if they do - can you share
which airlines/aircraft and their equipage levels?)
You think PCAS' short range and lack of direction information does not
makes it of limited use for airliner/fast traffic collision avoidance?
You disagree that transponders are important tools for airline
collision avoidance?
You disagree that transponders are the only technology that works/
interoperates with airline TCAS systems?
You disagree that if airliners are a serious/dominant concern you
should prioritize getting a transponder? (if I had airliners very
frequently fly over my glider port at 3-5k I would have installed a
transponder a long tine ago--have you?),

I didn't see anything in his response implying anything that deserved such
a rant built up of rhetorical questions. Suppose he had said he was worried
about other gliders in his area - wouldn't your attempts to belittle him
using technicalities all come to all halt?

No, not at all. But if he was worried about gliders in his area I would
have pointed out the limitations in that scenario - e.g. unless the
other gliders are carrying PowerFLARM he would have very limited or no
warning of them (especially there is no Mode-C PCAS support yet and no
audible alerts for any PCAS or ADS-B targets, and effectively no gliders
in the USA are 1090ES data-out equipped today).

What I did do was deliberately highlight the conflict between wanting a
PowerFLARM now for a particular use for which the PowerFLARM as
currently shipping does not really address well, prioritized over
contestants in a large contest, where the PowerFLARM as currently
shipping should be well suited.

The "technicalities" were not mentioned to belittle anybody, they are
absolutely core here as to why the whole argument why Uvlade contets
pilots should not be prioritized just made *no* sense to me, and why I
reacted so strongly. A large part of my reaction is my head spinning
about what I expect is a misunderstanding of current PowerFLARM firmware
features and the situation with airliner traffic. And FLARM/Urs has
posted this firmware information recently right here on r.a.s.
Unfortunately with all this collison avoidcance technology, the
technical details are important. If you don't think so please try
reading my many posts here on r.a.s. where I try to explain how
technologies like transponders, ADS-B and FLARM work and what they will
and won't get you. I really hope none of these technologies are though
of as magic boxes that just work (although flarm-flarm gets closest to
that for the glider on glider or glider on tow plane scenario). And my
advice to considering getting a transponder if concerned with airliner
traffic (instead of the PowerFLARM if both cannot be purchased) is an
absolutely serious suggestion that can significantly decrease risk of a
collision.

Prioritizing contestants at Uvlade is not needed just because pilots
there may not have ordered their PowerFLARM products, many did - early
on. It would be very unfortunate if some contest pilots there would miss
their order delivery because somebody else is a few places ahead of them
in the queue - this went through multiple dealers and given how it was
done I don't think anybody could ever unwind exactly who ordered what
when. And I think it is important the pilots at Uvlade who ordered early
and who have been active supporters of PowerFLARM etc. have the benefit
of as many other gliders in that contest fleet being PowerFLARM equipped.

I am not a contest pilot, but I've looked at too many mid-air accidents,
and lost a friend to a (non-contest) mid-air and I really want to see
this technology used now where it can provide the best safety
improvements to as many of our fellow glider pilots as possible. And
again, given expected shipping rates the inconvenience to the rest of us
should be pretty small.

Darryl