I can see that if you fly with a bunch of gliders Flarm can be a big help.
I'm mystified about about the close encounters with military and GA aircraft
unless you're operating in an area with little to no radar coverage, VFR
fliers, MOAs, oil burner routes, etc. I used to have to make position
reports while flying IFR in the Albuquerque to Cortez, CO area since there
was no radar coverage (this was several years back), but I haven't done that
in some time and I don't know about coverage there now.

Since installing my transponder I've seen it replying on the ground at
Moriarty and in the air many miles east and down low.

As they may have briefed at the pilot's meetings, we have an arrival
corridor pretty much overhead and sometimes airliners come over at 12,000'
MSL (6,000 AGL), and, I understand that ATC held them above 18,000' MSL for
the duration of the contest. Before installing my transponder, I saw many
airliners, C-130s, big twins, etc. closer than I would have liked. I even
heard a few engines. A Flarm would have provided no warning against those.
Since installing the transponder, I never see military or airline aircraft
closer than 5 miles or a couple thousand feet vertically. Neither Flarm nor
transponder will protect against VFR aircraft not in contact with ATC. PCAS
might work for that, however.


"Mike the Strike" wrote in message
...
I've had a transponder for eight years. What it doesn't do is keep away
general aviation and some military - I have had close-up views of a few
light twins in the past couple of years. Some sort of PCAS device will
help with this.

If you are flying with more than a handful of gliders, Flarm is very
useful. For fun flying, perhaps not so much, but for team flying and
contests it's a great tool.

I've already heard about the superiority of LX Flarmview, but the
Butterfly display came with my core unit.

Mike