Might be too little information too late since you already have spent the money on the Butterfly, but the LXNav Flarmview is really quite good. I have it connected to a portable unit for my primary display in the front seat.

The audio is not lacking in any way shape or form. It's almost too loud. I haven't actually tried to adjust the volume, I think that may be an option, but you could hear it just fine in a 2-33 at 60knots.

It's a bit cheaper than the Butterfly displays and it works great with polarized glasses. I'm really happy with it so far. A few usability quirks, but for the job it is supposed to do it works great. The configuration and manual leave a little to be desired as well, but like most things it is all firmware so I am confident those idiosyncrasies will get worked out in time..

I second Dan's opinion that a transponder is really the preferred safety device if you fly in airspace with big metal. For me it isn't an either/or for Flarm/Transponder. Both is the right choice.


Morgan


On Monday, June 10, 2013 7:30:54 AM UTC-7, Mike the Strike wrote:
Here's a brief review of my experience with PowerFlarm at last week's Region 9 contest in Moriarty.



As some of you know, I've been a bit annoyed with some of my PowerFlarm experience - setup isn't really intuitive and it's hard to find all the info you need in the manual. The antennas are cheesy and mounting them effectively is tough - I ended up with a setup that looked like a bomb sight from Dambusters!



Having said all that, I got it up and running and had my first flights during the contest. It works extremely well and in four contest days I got three alarms of imminent conflict that I took action to avoid. One of them really caught my attention as my cockpit view was filled with a glider crossing my path! I'm now an enthusiast!



A second major value was the information about gliders in your vicinity. It really, really, helps a pilot with situational awareness of where everyone is and this definitely helps to avoid conflict.



The Butterfly display works well and with Flarmnet data gives you the contest numbers of the gliders located (hence its value as a leeching tool). Its audio, however, is totally inadequate - especially for a half-deaf old geezer in a noisy cockpit. Some PDAs and PNAs also give you better presentation of the data.



During the contest, we had one very close mid-air (6 feet) with two gliders that were not Flarm equipped and that would likely have been avoided if they were. I hate making proprietary equipment compulsory, but I have to say that I am leaning that way for PowerFlarm for contests in the USA.



Some pilots whined that being able to see other gliders and their climb rates would forever change the way we fly contests and this may be true. This will not be the last we hear of this topic!



Mike (WA)