On Sep 11, 9:41*am, Darryl Ramm wrote:
I think we have pretty good interest in PowerFLARM adoption in the USA
soaring community now. We could have been a lot further along and have
fewer dead pilots had we all, including the SSA, worked to more actively
encourage FLARM to enter the USA market years ago.

Be aware, I'm in a curmudgeonly mood today:

Perhaps 4 or 5 pilots have died in the past decade in the US in glider/
glider or glider/towplane accidents. During that same period, I
suspect 50 or 60 pilots have died from more mundane issues, like
collision with terrain, stall/spin, failure to connect the elevator,
etc.

As anyone who has been around the US soaring scene for a while knows,
when Joe Glider Pilot hits the rocks, fails to notice that the
spoilers are open on takeoff, or spins in the pattern, it was because
he was inadequately trained or should never have been a pilot in the
first place. When Famous Racing Pilot runs into another glider, or
crashes in trees and can't be found for 24 hours or so, however, it is
obviously an issue that requires an immediate technical solution.
While I encourage people to equip themselves with PowerFLARM, ELTs, or
anything else they think helps, I will suggest that we have a very odd
attitude towards safety here in the US. It's far too difficult to do
some things, like examining whether changes to the tow signals are
appropriate, making sure tow planes have working radios, or
encouraging CDs not to set tasks which result in gliders encountering
each other head-on at cruise speed. But, if there is a fancy safety
gadget to be bought, we all need to be with the program. That is the
American way.

Speaking as a pilot who has (hopefully, temporarily) grounded himself
due to concerns that real life has become too much of a distraction
from flying safely,
Marc