Missing the issue, I think.

Vote here if you will refuse to go to contests that mandate stealth mode.

Vote here if you will not run a contest that mandates stealth mode -- either you think it's unwise, you think it adds to your legal liability, or you think it's a pointless PITA.

The RC used to be concerned above all about participation; attracting organizers (harder and harder) and pilots. If 11 pilots are annoyed that someone might be able to leech them from 4 miles away rather than have to stick on their tail to follow them around visually, and those pilots want some complex enforcement mechanism to stop it, well, tough. Just like the complaints we got over 0.001 handicap differences, 1 pound/sq ft wingloading differences, and so on.

Chip's phrasing of the question takes for granted that we have the same number of pilots and contests at which to play with the rules. An unwise assumption.

The sentiment out west where I am now is pretty clear: for many pilots, this could be the the final definitive excuse not to come to contests. OLC, "fun meets" and "fly ins" are taking over from sanctioned contests.

As I proselytize among the OLC, I hear "the tasks are too short, I don't like the tight gaggles, I don't want to take out my true-trak or satellite weather, I want to talk to my buddies on the radio" and so on. "I don't want to hobble my flarm" both for safety and fun (let's not forget the 40% who say it adds to their overall enjoyment, and the many respondents here who say they use flarm to keep track of buddies on XC flights) will add one more to the list, and hard to argue with.

As I talk to potential contest managers to drum up support for sanctioned regionals, I hear long complaints about the complexity of procedures. Dealing with the inevitable snafus of stealth mode enforcement? Not happening. This will be at best one more fictional rule with no enforcement (weights at regionals, disabling of AHRS, no cell phones or data in flight, no radio communication).

We need to get back to the principles of fun, participation, simplicity, safety. If some bozo thinks he's going to with the nationals by staring at his flarm radar and not looking out the window, good luck to him. If he gets 23d place rather than 35th, well, ok.

John Cochrane BB